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Hey everybody. Alright so for those of you just joining us this is a week two of Wynton Baptist roundtable discussion. Last week we talked about James chapter three. We got about halfway through James.
Tonight we're gonna pick up where we left off in James 3 12 I believe and excuse me 13 I'm sorry James 3 13 is where we'll be starting tonight and we're gonna get as far as into chapter four as we can and hopefully we'll have enough time for that and if not then we'll have to pick it up later.
If you're just not joining us I did just say a few moments ago that next week we will be having Dr. Dana Sneed join us and we'll be talking about the compatibility of evolution and Christianity and there is no compatibility but that's going to be the question that's posed quite often is that are these two things compatible?
Can evolution and Christianity both live and exist in the same worldview? And that's gonna be the question that we're really going to be pushing. Also this Saturday night we'll be having a question answering time on this Facebook page.
If you're on Instagram joining with us it'll be on Facebook live and come and join us then for a question answering then and if you have any questions you can submit it to this Facebook page. After that let's get started right?
So we're starting verse 13 I'm gonna read until probably about fifth or sixteenth and then we'll stop. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder.
And every evil practice. First takes? What I like a whole lot is verse 13. I'll just read it from my version. Who is wise and understanding among you? He should show his works by good conduct with wisdom's gentleness.
And when I hear that I think a whole lot of you can be super wise and you can say all the right things but if you don't say it in the right way you're still incorrect. That's right. And so the importance of wisdom's gentleness.
It says there's multiple types of wisdom. You see right here in verse 15. Such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly, sensual, demonic. I think a huge key difference there is the gentleness with that and not bragging, being braggadocious about your wisdom.
And not taking advantage of it. We often define wisdom as knowledge being put into action. Like practical knowledge. And if you take that definition well then there is such thing as earthly, demonic, ungodly wisdom because it's just taking knowledge and putting it into an improper ungodly way.
That's why what Hunter said is so key about the attitude. Humility, the fear of the Lord is the beginning, the starting point of wisdom. Which means you can't have this type of wisdom until you humble yourself before God because chapter 1 of James, which Jeremiah taught on a couple months ago, James 1 and 5 says if any of you, speaking to believers, if any of you lack wisdom he should ask God who gives to all generously and without criticizing and it will be given to him.
So it says such wisdom does not come from above but is earthly. So any other type of wisdom is not from above. It's not from the Father. And from verse 14 that type of wisdom is if you have any type of bitter and being selfish ambition, which is the opposite of humility, right?
For selfish reasons. Now going back to something you said though, I think was very key, is that you said you can say the right thing but in the wrong way. Let's add a third one to that, at the wrong time.
You have to, and I love, and it's so important and difficult, but so important to do, if you're gonna say something to someone, my mother tells us this sometimes, if you're gonna say something, first of all, make sure you're saying the right thing.
Make sure you're saying it in the right way. Make sure you're saying it at the right time. There's actually a fourth one she adds, am I the person to say it? Just because it's the right thing to say and they need to hear it, but does it need to come from you?
Right? That especially.
Becomes true in times when you are in an argument or any type of confrontation and where everything is driving you, and with the force of truth on your side, everything is driving you to speak and you have to say, hmm.
And notice with.
Verse 13, you know who is wise, because it says, who is wise and has understanding, he should show his works by good conduct. You know who is wise based on watching their lives. Based on watching how they act, right?
There's a certain air about those, the elders of the church, the older men as well, that carry themselves with the humbleness, the humility, the wisdom. You can just understand that. You know when, you know what women to go to talk to for certain things.
You know what men you need to go talk to for certain things because of how they live their lives. You know, when we talk about this humility and that stuff, I think it all starts with having, and I think Brother Jeremiah mentioned this last week, having a correct view of yourself and your sin in relation to God and His holiness.
Look at 1415 again. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't brag and deny the truth. Such wisdom doesn't come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. This is not about being possessed by a demon.
What is in your heart is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. Why? Because as Ephesians 2 says, before any of us were saved, before any of us were regenerated by the Holy Spirit, made alive, quickened, before any of that happened, we walked in step according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens.
Satan and the demons didn't have you on a puppet string. You did exactly what you wanted to do, which is exactly what they wanted you to do. Right. We say all the time, you did whatever you want in the prison cell of your sin.
And that's what it is. All this evil type of wisdom that's demonic, according to verse 14, it's already in your heart. And I love, and this is something that all of us, including myself, need to really listen to.
The two main characteristics of this type of selfish, of this type of false wisdom and demonic activity is not murder or rape. Look, envy and selfish ambition. Selfishness. Selfishness is the root evil that you will see from someone who is actually unwise.
Not any of the other stuff, not cursing or whatever you might perceive evil to be. Selfishness. Because when you are concerned with no one, but when you have self-conceit, and you're concerned about no one but your want, your right now wants.
Yeah. What, you're willing to sacrifice anything for that? What's gonna stop you, if you are the most important thing in your life? Yeah. If you are the most important thing in your world, then what's gonna stop you?
Who are you to stop me from getting what I want? I don't want to labor this point too much, but remember we spoke of it last week. In Timothy, when Paul is writing to the pastor Timothy at Ephesus, he says, but know this, in the last days perilous times will come.
He lists five verses worth of characteristics of how people would be the very first one. Lovers of self. Yeah. Because men will be lovers of self. It's the very first one he mentions, that you know the last it, men will be lovers of.
Self. It's like nature's law, man. You were talking about the one who reigns over the lower heavens, and we doing that will. I mean you can look at that down to toddlers, and you can see, because I can guarantee that everybody who turns two.
Says mine. Yes. Mine. I mean, right. That's why I think we as believers, if you're like, all right, what do I need to work on the most? Think of others before you think of yourself. Right. Think of others before.
Love your neighbors as yourself. Right. Because that means you decreasing and God increasing. Making yourself less. It's not thinking less of yourself, like, oh you, it's thinking of.
Yourself less. Right. I think a lot of people have come to that conclusion too, because you look at people who are not saved, who don't believe in God, and whenever they want to self-improve, they think of charity work.
Yeah. Let's do that, but they miss the key element of, it's not me serving them, it's me realizing my.
Place in serving them. That's a great point, fair enough. I'm gonna, and I loved how we went there. I'm actually gonna read, starting in 18, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong chapter. Starting in 17, and I'm gonna read through into chapter 4 real quick.
Alright, here we go. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is, first of all, pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, and good through impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire and do not have, so you kill. You covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
You do not have, because you do not ask God. We're gonna stop there for a second. The wisdom that's from above, you look at that list, it sounds a whole lot like the fruits of the Spirit. Yes, that's a fantastic point.
Pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy. And it literally says, and good fruits. This is what you were reading a few months ago, verse 17, without favoritism and hypocrisy. Remember back in chapter, it might have been chapter 2, where he was talking about, if you're in amongst believers, don't treat the rich as more important than the poor, but give them the first seats, making everyone else in their love should be without hypocrisy.
You should not love someone else because of what they can give you, or their earthly status, because that earthly status doesn't matter when it comes face-to-face with God. So when it says here, all these type of wisdom should be without favoritism and hypocrisy.
Where that hits me home, and where I need to refocus that, your brothers in Christ, you don't love them because of what you have in common by earthly standards, because they're like the same sports teams, or because y 'all, love is without hypocrisy.
You love them because they're your brothers in Christ. They're your sisters in Christ. So this wisdom, wisdom is putting aside any silliness with cliques, or whatever you have, without favoritism and hypocrisy, showing this good fruits, mercy, compliance, gentleness, loving, peace to all of your brothers.
I think my favorite adjective, and this is the last one, sincere. How often do you hear people trying to give insincere wisdom? Like, it's a wisdom that, well here, let me just tell you something, so I can sound smart, so I can get on your good side.
It's not genuine, humble wisdom from the heart. And I don't know man, when you have a spiritual wisdom, when you have a wisdom from God, it is sincere. It must be sincere. It requires sincerity. You cannot, I mean you can, but trying to give godly wisdom in an insincere way is just like ash in your mouth.
It just tastes funny. I like the equality, I like.
The parallel that they're drawing between the peace-loving and the humble. So in verse 18 it says, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And so when I read that, I hear, you are righteous if you are humble, right?
It is sown in peace by those who are humble. Because it goes in the next verse, what's the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from the cravings that are at war within you? My dad called it the spirit man versus the flesh man.
And they're always at war, right? And it's that same thing. It is humility over giving in to those cravings and having.
Those battles. And what you just said, Hunter, is so key. It's so key. I don't want to get too much on a tangent, but often people will ask questions about struggling with certain sins. I think we have forgotten what the word struggle means.
What do you mean you're struggling with that sin? Tell me about it. Oh, I just don't feel bad about it. That's not what a struggle is. Struggle means you're fighting against it. That's what a struggle means.
Are you really struggling with that sin or are you wallowing in it? You know, what is it? And I can look myself in the mirror sometimes and say, Josiah, are you really struggling with that sin or are you just noticing it's there?
Noticing it's there is not a struggle. Yeah, yeah. That's not noticing it. Feeling conviction about it and not acting on it is not a struggle. Feeling conviction about it or acknowledging that it's wrong is not struggling.
That's step one. That's not a struggle. That's not a struggle. The source of war and all this stuff, they're fighting amongst themselves because they're not at war in the hearts with the selfish ambition in the hearts.
Before you said that, I was going to say this. I'm glad you said that, though. This is one of those times when it is horrible that we have chapters in here. That we think of it as a divide. Because verse 1 is almost a rhetorical question.
After everything I just told you about the selfish ambition, about your self-conceit, and how that's the source of all evil, that every evil practice can be found there, correct me, there. And then it says, so what's the source of struggles and war among you?
If we had started it in chapter 4, we would have pop quiz. It's the selfish ambition. It's the self-conceit within your hearts. Because that's exactly what it says. Don't they come from the desires that battle within you.
You desire but do not have, so you kill. That's selfishness. Yeah. That's selfishness. And I just wanted to point that out because we divide these so much. Don't stop reading. It's the same breath. He's saying this in the same breath.
I just said this and now I'm asking a rhetorical question. What are the fights and wars among you come from? The selfish desires in your heart. Now I think, I truly believe, that one of the most things that God looks down on the most is division among his own people.
So we all have to ask ourselves from time to time, is your selfishness, is any way you're being selfish to cause a division, fights, quarrels, wars within your own church, within your fellow Christians?
Because that is a very serious thing. That's a very serious thing that I don't think people take seriously. Right? The idea of being a stumbling block. Well, what's, I mean, we're going through Philippians on Sunday night right now.
Paul in chapter 4 calls out two ladies by name, not because they're, you know, sleeping around. He calls them out by name because they're causing dissension. Because they're causing dissension in the body.
Gossip. And he calls them out by name and says, put an end to this, because it's causing division. The Apostle Paul. Yeah. Calls them out by name. Well, remember the entire point of the.
Entire Christian experience, if that's what you want to call it, is to be righteous. Is to find righteousness and be more like Christ. In 18 it says, in the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Yeah. So the second you stop making peace, you stop sowing righteousness. If you're the.
Source of the unrest. I was reading in Thessalonians today, and it literally says, did I not tell you when I was with you to live a quiet life, to do your work, and to not be dependent on anyone. Yeah.
And I can't remember who said it. It's a famous preacher. I don't remember who said it, but a famous preacher said one time, preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten. Like, we have, even in Christians, we have this selfish desire.
I want to be famous. I want to be the one to reach thousands of people. I want to be, preach the gospel, die, be forgotten. You forgot it. I did forget it. He took it to heart. I can't remember what his name is.
Right, right. The goal should be obedience. I mean, we have whole prophets who prophesied and preached for decades and never saw a single conversion. Never, never. You said this last week to me. The greatest sermon ever is the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus.
That's the greatest preacher ever. By the greatest preacher ever. Zero people converted. Once he got done, the Pharisees walked out and said, all right, how are we going to kill this guy? Which doesn't mean that he didn't preach the gospel.
No. He was obedient, right. And that obedience is, oh man. We obey and the rest is up to God. I think that's interesting because.
There's a whole lot of people who get discouraged when they speak and there isn't conversions or there isn't, they don't see God moving, but then you have.
Literally God speaking. And they deny him. And people still deny him. And kill him. Yeah. All right, let's move forward here. So I'm gonna pick up in the middle because I feel like there's a little shift here.
Middle of verse 4, it says, you do not have because you do not ask God. Yeah. Kind of simple there. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures.
I, and we'll get to the whole motives thing in a second. The first thing I think of is, you do not have because you do not ask. We'll get to the wrong motives in a second. But you do not have because you don't ask.
Matthew 6. Jesus is talking. This is the circle of hell. And he says, look. These flowers in this field, they're beautiful and glorious. And they have everything they need. This is a flower. It's gonna be here today and gone tomorrow.
How much more do you think Father above will give you, his son, his children? Right? The sparrow. I think we talked about this last week, son. A tiny worthless bird. God says, hey, not one can fall to the ground without me allowing it.
Without me knowing it. How much more does he care for you? Sometimes we limit God. We limit God. And I'm gonna point two things out about this. There's two thoughts about this and both are correct. One, a brother of mine said, pray big.
God is a big God. He's a powerful God. He's a mighty God who divides rivers and brings dead back to life and saves a wretched soul like me. Pray big. God's a big God. I'm like, amen. But there's also a second thing.
That God also cares about your day-to-day life. He's a personal God. What you went through today, he cares about. He's in your life. He's not, well, I'm not dying of cancer so I'm not gonna pray to God about it.
Well, I'm not, I'm not going bankrupt, my kids aren't starving, so why should I bring this to God? It's not like that. And I feel like sometimes when we always just think, oh, pray big, pray, like okay, yes, true.
But your individual day-to-day problems that you struggle with, your fears and insecurities, it's okay to say, God, I'm struggling right now. Yeah, Elijah's afraid in the wilderness. God brings him a single meal.
He cares about his son is hungry. His son is running away from Jezebel. He cares about his, he didn't, you know, rain 20 tons of manna from heaven. He fed his son Elijah.
I think that's something, that's something that I definitely have struggled with a lot, is I can pray, I can pray and have faith in the big things, in the world-shocking things, and they're like, oh my gosh, everything's changing.
But when it comes to praying about the small stuff, praying about my day-to-day and stuff, I'll do it. But when I read this,.
I hear you lack faith. And I'm right there with you. And I think if we combine two other passages in our head, you know, pray without ceasing. In all your ways, acknowledge him. If you're acknowledging him, giving him credence in all your ways.
Now, what does all mean? In all your ways, right? Then in everything you do, you are communicating and praying without ceasing. If you are acknowledging him in all your ways, and then he will direct your paths.
So I'm right there with you. And I think that's a hopeful mindset for us. I agree. Let's go to that second part of the verse though, man. So let's see, we're at, you do not have because you do not ask God.
When you ask though, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend it, spend what you get on your pleasures.
So that's another parallel with 3 .13, with saying the right thing in the wrong way. Right. I think that's, I think that's the wrong part of that.
And it unifies to the Lord too. Yeah. Let's, let's say this is prayer. You're praying. You, you say the prayer, but with ulterior motives in your heart. It says you ask with the wrong motives and you don't receive.
So like when I was a kid and I would read that, I was saying, they're asking for the wrong things. They're asking for things that are self gratifying, stuff like that. But when I read that now, I hear you can ask for the correct thing, but want it for your own glory.
I can pray, hey, heal this person so that when they're healed, people will see that I was the one.
Praying over them. You know what I'm saying? Something like that. You know, God helped me learn how to play this song so that on Sunday morning, I can look good while singing it. God. You didn't have to put me on blast.
No, no, no. That was bad timing, wasn't it? You know, whatever it may be, God helped me do this. But in the inside, so that I will sound good. I'll get out of voice. Someone will call me later and say, hey man, great lesson.
Right. Is that, is that why I'm doing it? I mean, and then when that happens, you have what I love to call false humility. It wasn't me. You know, like don't, uh, don't, it's false humility. It's like, yeah, you want, I mean, come on, come on.
Um, it, yeah, that's, that's, it's such a big thing, dude. It's such a big thing. You ask what's wrong with this. And I also, let's talk real quick. I want to, uh, James chapter one, you do not receive wisdom because you don't ask in faith.
There you go. You do not ask, you do not receive the wisdom. He says, I'll gift you all generously without criticizing. But if you ask, ask in faith, believing you will receive. So you won't be like the wind.
So you won't be like the wave toss around. Yeah. Same idea. All right. Uh, verse four, you adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God. Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
Or do you think scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us, but he gives us more grace. Yes. That's why scripture says God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.
We've got to hear this. He's speaking to believers. Yes. He calls them adulterous or your Bible may say unfaithful people. Why? Because their first love should be to the Lord. And if you love anything more than you love Jesus, I'm speaking to myself right now.
You're an adulterous to G to Jesus. Go ahead. And that includes people. Yes. Your family, your wife, your husband, your children. Yes. Do not put them above God. You're putting them in a dangerous position.
If you put them above God. That's you know, when I think of that and when I think of this verse, I think of a lot. I think of a lot in Genesis when he gives his daughters. Oh yeah. Yeah. And so I think of like, how could that possibly be the righteous action?
And I want people to hear verse four. When you started talking, I went over to first John, you know, friendship with the world is enemy or hostility to God. First John 2 15 says, don't love the world or the things that belong to the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. Yeah. And you know, sometimes there's confusion. You know, Josiah thought we were supposed to love the lost, right? That's not what it's speaking of here.
Don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God. Do not love the world or the things that love the world. We love the father is in verse 16 of first John 2 for everything that belongs to the world.
The less of the flesh, the less of the eyes and the pride of one's lifestyle is not from God, but from the world. Remember the natural state of the world and the natural state of our hearts is evil in every way.
And only wisdom, every good and perfect gift is from above, not from here, right? So if it's not from above, the natural state of it is evil. This has nothing to do with loving the lost and wanting to come to know God.
This is wanting to love the things in the world. The less of the eyes, the pride of one's lifestyle. But I think we need to pay attention to that second part of that is enemy with God. Remember what Romans 5 says.
Every one of us were enemies of God, but we are reconciled. So you as a believer, if you start loving the things in the world more than you love the God who saved you, you are trying to put yourself back at enmity with God where you were before.
That's not a position you want to be in. And the whole friendship thing. Like what do you mean by friendship? Define friendship for me. Because when you sit there and you go to these places, you're hanging around with these people, or let's even go a little less drastic.
When you're at work and everyone's laughing and joking about things they shouldn't be laughing and joking about and you join in, aren't you kind of getting a little buddy-buddy there? Aren't you kind of?
And so it's like, oh, well, I'm not friends with the world. Well, well, you better be careful because we throw the word friend around real easy. I mean, how many friends do you have? Oh, I got lots of friends.
Look at my Facebook page. I got tons of friends. We throw that word around a lot. Look at James' immediate response. There's some sarcasm here. Do you think it was for no reason that the scripture said that the spirit that lives in us yearns jealously?
Or your Bible may say, you know, it longs jealously. Look, there's a whole lot of passages in the Old Testament that talks about love God with your whole heart. Whole heart. Whole heart. Whole heart. He is a jealous God.
He wants all of it. All of it. And any part you don't give him is hostility towards him. Nope.
What makes this personal for me, and I think the verse four is super, super important for you specifically, just because they're different things. What makes it personal for me is Galatians 1 .10. It says, for am I now trying to win the approval of man or of God?
Right, right. Or am I trying to win the approval of man? For if I were trying to win the approval of man, I would not be a slave of Christ. Right. And I think that really speaks to this right now is in those moments, when you have the opportunity to stand for your faith, you know, Christians will call it keeping your witness.
They say, I want to keep my witness with them. But in reality, you're just not standing up for what you're supposed to be. Right, right, okay. I'm with you. They say, you know, they might say something that they're not supposed to.
They might be partaking in something while you are right there. And by every means, that should not be happening. But you just stay quiet. You stay quiet because if I do something now, I ruin my chance to witness to them later, which is just so wrong.
But that's with Christians. But then with non-Christians, you have people that ride the fence. And this is what I mean about the youth. About youth is that there are so many people right now who don't know, and this is all over, in that age group, who just don't know what they want to be.
They know, okay, when I go to church, I know that righteousness is there, right? But when I go to my friends or when I go to school and stuff like that, I know that I have a lot of fun there. And so it's just like, you never really make your choice between those two worlds.
And by doing that, you've made your choice between those two worlds. That's exactly right.
But the answer to all that, because I'll speak, I'll go ahead and speak for everyone, because everyone sitting down is guilty of that at some point. Every one of us have been guilty of that. And that's why this next verse can almost make you cry, because the answer to get out of that situation is humility.
But He gives greater grace or even more grace. This is to believers, y 'all. But He gives grace yet again, greater grace. Therefore, He says, or the scripture says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Therefore, now, whenever you see the word, therefore, guys, ask yourself, what is the therefore? Therefore, it is connecting what was just said, right? And what is just said is, it has put all of us back in the guilt of, okay, how much do you really love Jesus?
Because if there's any friendship with the world, you're an adulterous towards God. But He gives greater grace, if you will, but humble yourself. Man, therefore, He gives greater grace. And He says, God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Notice that the quote from Proverbs 3, written by Solomon, but it says that God said it. It says scripture said it. It's showing you that the Old Testament is scripture. He resists the proud, but He gives grace.
Not to the perfect, not to the humble. That's who He gives grace to, the humble. Your recognition of your own place before God. Yes. You, and that's one of the biggest things with humility. It's not about that.
It's where are you and where is God? The more you learn and see for a while, when I was young, I didn't understand always why we learned the characters of God, the characteristics of God. So He's this and that.
But now I learn it so much when I understand, because the more you learn about who God is. You learn who you're not. Exactly. The more you learn who He is, you understand the difference, the gap, the huge distance between His holiness and your filth.
We mentioned this last Saturday on the question and answer. My best Christian moment, the way pastor says is my best five minutes as a Christian is filthy rags before God. It says in scripture, my good works.
It doesn't say my bad. My good works are filthy rags. So if your good works are filthy rags, to quote Josiah here, what are your bad works? What do they look like? If my best five minutes are a filthy rag on His feet, what does my sin look like?
Well, yeah. I mean, what is that to Him then? Right. And yet, and yet He gives grace. Even more. Humble yourself. Even more. And so it's that recognition of your place of who you are before God. And which is what verse seven says.
Yep. Because of all that, because of all that, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your heart, you double-minded.
Do you want to say something? Oh, I was just going to say something really quick about God being a jealous God. I do not know the number, but how many times does it say in the Bible that God is a jealous God?
In fact, when Dawkins attacks God, he'll attack him for saying he's a jealous God. It's a very well-known quality. So I think it's so awesome when he said no matter how jealous God is, He's even more gracious.
And I just thought that was really powerful because of how often you hear that God is a jealous God for you.
Well, the way I learned about the jealousy of God that made it so much easier for me to understand is if you have a bike and someone steals your bike, is it wrong for you to want it back? No, it's yours.
It's yours. It's not wrong for you to want it back. So God, He owns everything. Everything is His. So it's not wrong for God to want it. If you're married and your wife cheats on you, your husband cheats on you, it's not wrong for you to want them back.
It's not wrong for you to be jealous of your spouse because they're yours. The two shall become one flesh. I'm so glad you just used that analogy because if we're the bride of Christ and we're acting as adulteresses, then not only is it not wrong for Him to want us back, but how much more jealous is He for His people, for His bride who are wandering away and it's hurting them.
Oh, man. It's hurting them. It's not hurting Him. So by Him being jealous for you, He keeps you protected.
Right. You'd rather hurt yourself than be with Him. Man. That's what I hear.
And I'll say this is I am so guilty of this. I will read the Old Testament and I will sit there and think, man, those Jews were idiots. I'm like, God's doing all of this before you. God's sitting here doing these miracles and you're just going to turn your back on Him.
And He uses the same word with us because we do the same thing. He called them adulterers. He calls us adulterers because we're doing the same thing. The same thing. All right. Here we go. Verse nine.
Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up. I think that sometimes can get confused in people's minds a lot.
Because in Proverbs it says, you know, laughter is a good medicine. And it says, eat, drink, and be merry for this is good in life. Sure. And so people will get this confusion. But I'm not saying that scripture has a contradiction when that's not the case at all.
No. These are people that are being prideful, being selfish. They're double-minded. They have one foot in the world and one foot with Him. They're in hostility of God. They're a friend of God. So die to yourself every day.
Pick up your cross, which is a torture device. Pick up your cross. Die to yourself. Be miserable, mourn, and weep for that friendship you have with the things of the world, the pride of life, the lust of the eyes.
Kill that selfish desire. And in that humility, that's what humbling yourself is, verse 10. Then He will exalt you. It's like, so this again sounds like a Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are those who mourn for they, blessed are the, it's almost like the guy who wrote this was kin to Jesus or something.
Like he was his brother or something. I'm not sure, but it sounds like he heard a lot of this firsthand.
I think this is another parallel between James 3, but this time it's verse 14. But if you have bitter, envy, and selfish ambition in your heart, don't brag and lie in defiance of the truth. And I think that that's with verse 9.
Be miserable, mourn, and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. You are bragging and you are proud of your sin. Right, your joy is in your sin. Right, your joy is in your idea of yourself and your image versus where God is.
And I think this is a, you need to repent and you need to stop saying this is good and the way you live in your life is good and being proud of it because that's disgusting. Be miserable, mourn, and weep.
Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. Repent before the Lord, basically.
We got two more little chunks and we're going to call it there. 618. Okay, copy. Brothers and sisters do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it.
When you judge the law, you are not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it. There's only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you, who are you to judge your neighbor?
So does this mean we're never ever supposed to judge anyone in any way, shape, form, or fashion? Depends on what your definition of judge is. But no, we have to have a right definition of what judge means.
So there's only one lawgiver. The judgment that James is speaking that these people are doing is judging each other on standards apart from God's law. There's only one lawgiver and you're not it. Right.
That's the key. There's only one lawgiver and you're not it. So you are not the judge in any way of your own. There's only one lawgiver. You can and are called to point God's law, God's people to his law, but you are never to make any kind of law other than what is God's law.
That's what we call legalism. Jesus gives us examples of how to confront each other. Yeah. He says, look, if a brother's in fault, you go to him and you confront him so that he may be restored, so that there's a keeping reconciliation.
If that doesn't work, then take a couple of guys with you. If that doesn't work, take them for the church. So he gives us directions on how to judge and confront someone. Yeah, and this could almost be a whole topic by itself, but you hear people say all the time, don't judge me.
Well, what do you mean? Don't judge you. If I don't judge you, you mean don't point you to what the Bible says to do? Well, that's a problem because if don't judge me by that, you mean don't hold me to any standard other than this because there's only one lawgiver and you're not him.
Correct. Right. That's fine. No man made law. No man made tradition. No man made denomination is the law of God. The law of God is what he's given us in his word. And if we criticize or judge our brothers, I'm sorry, our brothers and sisters by any other law other than the one the lawgiver gave, then who are you to judge your neighbor?
That's what it says. Who are you? God made his law, not you. We didn't make the rules. We just point them out to other people and to ourselves. Yeah. And we hold our brothers and sisters to the standard of God's law.
That's exactly right. We hold our brothers and sisters to the standard of God's law, not our own standards. Matthew 7 says the same thing. Right. I have no right to hold Hunter or Jeremiah or anybody else to any other standard other than the Bible.
It doesn't matter what my personal preferences are or what I would prefer. If it's not one of God's law, I have no right to criticize or judge them based on that.
It's what I hear is you're going to walk into my church and you're going to wear that hat. You're going to wear those. This is how you're going to present yourself. Right. That's what I hear. Don't criticize one another.
Right. That's not God's law. Right. That's your law. And that's where it comes humbling yourself in. You've exalted yourself. And now you're going to nitpick all these little things that are not nowhere in here.
And that's what that is. I always tell people, look guys, this is 66 books. Okay. It's enough to follow on its own. You don't have to add anything to it. We've got a lot of reading and a lot of work to do.
Okay.
Because not one of us can follow them all. Right.
Yeah, add some to it. All right. 13 through 17 and we'll call it there. All right. Now, listen, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.
Why? You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.
As, as it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for that person. And right back to have a right view of yourself to God.
You are a smoke, a vapor that vanishes in the wind and he's God. You're not, you should be so in tune with the sovereignty of God and acknowledge him in all of your ways that you shouldn't even say, I'm going to go do this.
I'm going to do it next year. I'll make, and I'm going to do this. You say, if the Lord wills, because I acknowledge him in all my ways, big and small, and I'm never on my own power. And if, and when Josiah, when Josiah makes any of those type of plans, which Josiah has been guilty of doing without acknowledging God, that is boasting.
That's boasting. If I make plans to do things, big plans, and I don't acknowledge God, and I say on my own power, I'm going to do that, that's boasting. Yep. I like to point out to people that even on a, not a spiritual level, it's a bad thing to do because who's to say you're going to want the same thing?
You don't want the same thing that you wanted 10 years ago, five years ago. So who's to say you're going to want the same thing now? My biggest thing is leave every door open, and wherever, God will shut the ones that he didn't want you to go to.
Okay. And he will open the doors he didn't want you, he does want you to go to. You don't have to sit here, and it's not wrong to plan. That's not what we're saying. Scripture says, a man prepares his ways, but the Lord determines his steps.
Yeah, it's planning without acknowledging God. Right, yeah, it's okay to plan, but you plan acknowledging God saying, God, I do this. I do this even when I'm preparing a lesson. God, this is what I've got.
This is what I'm going with. If this is not what you want me to do, you say the word, I will change everything and drop everything. But unless you say different, God, this is where I'm going. And I do that from my lessons and sermons I make to my life.
God, if you say something different, I will change everything. I'll start over. But if not, this is where I'm headed. Yeah.
That's become terminology or term of phrase is God willing. God willing, I'll do this. Lord willing. Right, which is change. It's not actually the biblical, if the Lord wills it. It's, well, hopefully.
That's the plan, God willing. So that's what was cool when I read that. I was like, oh, this is supposed to be a humility thing. It's supposed to be, oh, I can't move without God, you know, pulling without God giving me that strength.
Right. He is the ultimate creator of all things. Who am I? If God wills it. Yeah. Then I'll be there.
Or yeah, I'll do this. Man, I keep pointing this out. It's like he heard the words of Jesus. Matthew chapter six. Don't even worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow, worry about something. Each day has enough trouble on its own.
You don't even, back to James, you don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow. You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. That's true, though. You don't know. I woke up. You can plan for what you think tomorrow will bring, but then you get there and your boss puts something else on your desk.
Or you have no idea what tomorrow will bring. I woke up Monday morning, got in my car, started driving to work, heard a noise, got out, my tires were flat. Well, my day's planned, went and had to get new tires and this and that and blah, blah, blah.
And you just, you don't know. Man, you don't know. I'm going to the park and get arrested. In our current situation, I wouldn't have predicted this. No. I wouldn't have predicted this. No. Not to this extent.
This is not the plans that I had four months ago. No. No, it's not. But then, but then you got that last verse, guys. Thank you. Verse, yeah, verse 17. You can't, you cannot pass that one up. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.
Sin. I'll let you go first. Oh, you're going to let me do it?
Go ahead. Okay. Okay, this is my favorite verse. So for the person who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it is sin. That's your favorite verse? That is my favorite verse because that's how I live my life.
And it's not because of what I'm about to say.
I like more of the toasty ones. Yeah, that doesn't make me feel good.
That is because that's the way that I personally believe. If you don't stand for anything, you can't call yourself a man. You can't call yourself a woman. You cannot call yourself a real Christian. You have to stand for something.
You have to have morals. You have to have honor, right? And so when I read that, I hear the Amazing Spider-Man number one with Andrew Garfield and Uncle Ben, you know, it's right. And Uncle Ben says, your father, he had a philosophy.
If you could do something good for somebody else, you have the moral obligation to do those things. That's what's at stake. It's not about choice. It's about responsibility. And so that's what I read here.
It's not about choice, whether or not us as Christians humble ourselves and do the right thing when the opportunity presents itself. It's about the responsibility that we have to it.
You said you were going to use that analogy before. That really worked really well. Thank you. I'll follow. It was nerdy. It was hard with all the hate I was getting from everywhere. No, no, it worked.
I'm right there with you. Some people call it the sin of omission instead of commission. In other words, why did it do anything wrong? Yes, but not doing something right is doing something wrong. Inaction is wrong.
The number one thing that comes to my mind is Romans 1 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. So when you show shame, when you sit in silence day in and day out and refuse to share the gospel with someone when you know you should, or the example you gave when people are speaking in a way they shouldn't be speaking or picking on someone or bullying or whatever it may be and you just sit in silence, that is equal if not more so wrong than these other things.
You know what to do. You know what to do and you don't do it. You don't stand up. You don't speak out. You don't show that, hey, I'm not ashamed of Jesus.
Man, that gets me pumped up because it answers all the questions. Should I intervene? Should I do this? Do you know that it is good? Do you know that that is the good thing to do? Then nothing else matters.
That's why take the consequence, but you do what is right. And this is how I've adapted that verse. Whenever people ask me a question, what should I do in this situation? And I maybe don't have the specific.
This is what I say. You do whatever you have to do where when you go to sleep tonight, you know that you are blameless. You know that you are not in the wrong. Nobody can bring up an accusation against you because everything you did was good.
And you did not refrain from doing good.
You know, it's a point. No, it is though. And I mean, it covers all your bases, man. When you sit there and say, well, what does scripture say about this? It's silent on this. Okay, but use some common sense here.
Use the wisdom God gave you, okay? Use the brothers and sisters in Christ and do what is right. Stay above reproach. And Matthew, once again, Sermon on the Mount, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify the Father in heaven.
And going back to the example I gave, when you show shame of Christ, when you show shame, you're not letting your work shine. Man, the way, and another way that this verse goes hand in hand, walk worthy of the calling you have received.
Walk worthy of the gospel, Ephesians chapter 4, 1, right? Walk worthy of the gospel. If you call yourself a Christian, Christ is in that. Christian, Christ. You bear the name of Christ. If you say, I'm a Christian, you are bearing the name of God, the name of Christ.
That is a serious thing to claim. And we throw that title, we throw that word around way too easily. And we don't do what is right when we know it. I don't remember what I was going to say now. But, you know, the sin is not being afraid.
The sin is not being uncomfortable in a situation. The sin is allowing that fear or discomfort to keep you from acting. Right. Yes. It's not wrong to be like, it's not wrong to be afraid. Or the sin is to allow that fear, that insecurity, whatever, to overcome what you know is right.
Have y 'all got anything else? All right. Hey, thank y 'all so much for tuning in. I don't know y 'all, but I really enjoyed that. Thank you, Hunter. Thank you, Josiah, for coming and joining. Next week, we'll have Dr. Dana.
Dr. Dana Sneed, yeah. I'm looking forward to that greatly. I hope to see everyone there. Hope for y 'all to join. And Hunter, if you'll pray this out, and we'll be done.
Lord God, I lift up our church family to you, Lord. Lord God, I pray. Help us be of a humble. God, let our joy turn to mourning and repentance to you. To genuinely serve you with an increased our wisdom, with increased our health.
Thank y 'all so much for joining, and I'll see y 'all later. How your phone died.