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All right, let's turn our Bibles, please, to the book of James. The book of James. It's been quite some time since I've taught the book of James here at Bethlehem Bible Church. I believe this was the first book of the Bible I ever taught through on Sunday morning as a pastor.
And so it's been some time, and I thought, well, while we're doing jet tours, why don't we do a jet tour of James? This is not quite as fast as the one we did this morning. It'll take us two or three, maybe four nights on Sunday nights as we gather together to go through the book of James.
And if you were here, I think Fred and Maxine were here. Who else was here when I preached through James? Luke, you were here. Yeah, you were about this big. But he was here, that's true. I don't think anyone else was here for that series.
And so even for Fred and Maxine or for myself, I've preached through it, but it's still good to revisit Scripture. I don't think any of us have the attitude that says, I've read that book, I memorized it, I did it for discipleship, I taught through it, and now I never have to open that book up again.
Is that how we think? No, because too often our lives are typified by forgetting what we need to remember and remembering what we need to forget. And so we need to go back to the book of James and talk about this letter that challenges you, are you really a Christian?
Are you a Christian? Prove it. Prove the validity of your faith. Now, that is God speaking, that is James speaking through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's not necessarily we have to prove it to other people, but before God we want to make sure that we really are Christians.
And so the theme really of this book is Tests of Saving Faith. This is a very difficult book to outline. Many scholars do it different ways, but the way I'll outline it is like D. Edmund Hebert and like John MacArthur, Tests of Saving Faith.
And really that is the theme. This is an epistle of reality, one man called it. It's down to earth. It is concise. It is disturbing at times. It is very, very forthright. True or false, James beats around the bush very often when it comes to this book.
He doesn't. He is really, really in your face at times and very, very direct. This is probably the first book that was written in the New Testament around 46 to 49 AD. It's a style of James who is the leader of the local church.
You would imagine a man like this would teach in such a direct style. Here's what Doug Moo said. It is perfectly natural for James to have adopted this form for use in the church, this kind of preaching style form letter.
And that would be more natural. What would be more natural than for James to summarize his preaching to his flock in Jerusalem in a letter sent to those who could not be there in person to hear it? And so you've got these dispersed tribes.
Wouldn't it make sense? James is preaching to the church in Jerusalem and then he just takes a sermon or two or five, condenses it, and then sends it out. That used to happen all the time back in Spurgeon's day, didn't it?
There were stenographers and those five stenographers would take notes of Spurgeon's sermons at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. They would be combined into one. One final stenographer would take the notes.
They would hand that final set of notes to Charles Spurgeon and then he would make the final corrections and then the messages would go out so you could affect other people, not just in London. This is a book that is very energetic in style.
It's full of rhetorical questions. I bet you would say to yourself as you read this book, if I could just sit underneath James, that would have been an exciting preacher to listen to. Don't you think?
Or do you think you would have just been some kind of boring, monotone person? I don't think you get that flavor from James at all. And he conveys deep truths with all kinds of figures of speech and imagery.
Very, very interesting. Some people call it the Amos of the New Testament. You'd like an assignment to do this week? Read Amos and you'll see that kind of interesting, sharp, striking to the point kind of teaching.
True or false? James is the least doctrinal epistle in all the New Testament. Now, there's doctrine in there we know, but is it the least doctrinal? Can you think of doctrines that aren't in this book?
Luther said it's a right what? Strawy epistle. I always have to make sure when I say that I don't slip into my New England kind of speech. It's a right strawy epistle because it just sounds funny to me.
People said, well, there's no crucifixion, our cross. There's no resurrection. There's hardly a mention of Jesus in this book, except in James chapter 2. There is the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of God.
But James isn't interested in teaching the church doctrine per se. He's interested in having them live out what they already know. They've been taught the truth. They know about God. And now James says, so you believe everything I've taught you, then obey it.
Do it. The problem has been failing to put their faith into practice. This could happen at BBC, couldn't it? It could happen to us. We have a theological construct. We know what we believe. We've been taught the right things.
We've received the baton from other great teachers in our life. And we say we affirm that, but we need more than just we understand it. We believe it. But do we what? Obey what we've been taught. If you had to summarize James in one verse, it'd be James 1 .22.
Do not merely listen to the word and deceive yourself. Do what it says. Be a doer of God's word. Look at James 1 .1. We'll just set the tone and then we'll get into some review and then into the message.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations, greetings. James was a man that if you gave one name, not even a last name, not his city of origin, you could just say the word James and everyone knew who he was.
Sometimes I think we have people in our culture today, they happen to be celebrities. But if I say Bono, everyone knows. If I say Oprah, everyone knows. If I say, well, I guess maybe not everyone, but those of us that somehow drink from the well of pop culture, you know, Prince, you know, Madonna.
It's a one name person and we know who it is. This man was popular enough that if you said James, people wouldn't go, well, is that son of Alpheus? I wonder who it might be. They would know this is the half brother of Jesus Christ, recognized by the mere mention of his name.
He was a child of Joseph and Mary. He had Mary for his mother and Joseph for his father. He was the next oldest son and he was an unbeliever in Christ Jesus up until at least seven months before Jesus was crucified.
And who was he? He was just a servant. Now we move to the test of saving faith. The first test we saw last Sunday night, or two Sunday nights ago, was do you have joy in trials found in chapter 1 verses 2 through 12.
When you're an unbeliever, you want to get out of the trials. You don't think there's any use to them. You don't think they're working in your life somehow. You will have no happiness. And we don't like trials today even as Christian, but we can have joy.
Chapter 1 verse 2. Matter of fact, we're supposed to have joy with a command kind of statement. Consider it pure joy, my brethren, when you face various trials or trials of many kinds. Trials come our way in a variety of different colors like Joseph's coat of many colors.
We have a variety of trials. And when they come, a sign of a Christian, a maturing Christian is, I see those trials as God is over them. God is sovereign over them. And even though I might not be happy, even though I want an escape, even though I want them over, you can still say, and I've met with people in the last month, I know the trial is heavy, but God is sovereign, and I know he's still on the throne.
How he works it out and when he works it out, I don't know, but we can have joy in trials. That word consider in verse 2 is a careful evaluation. You assess the truth and you look at the situation and you think, I don't know what's going on.
I like to get out of the trial, but God is working and he's working for his glory and for my good. Number 2, blame and temptation, verses 13 through 18 in chapter 1. Verses 13 through 18. Before you were a Christian, you probably tried to blame everything.
Probably tried to blame your parents, the environment. Who knows who you blamed. The devil made me do it. Now we're Christians and we think differently. We think differently because we have repented in our minds.
Do we blame other people or even God when we're tempted? Verse 13. When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. Doesn't that sound funny? Doesn't that sound ludicrous? Doesn't that sound shameful?
For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. Now there's a way to see God as a tempter in a wrong way that's blatant in your face. How about this? The woman you put here with me, she gave me some of the fruit from the tree and I ate it.
God, you made me sin. And there are indirect ways as well where you think the way God has sovereignly put this together, God could have prevented me from being there. He could have made it easier for me so I didn't fall into temptation.
God, you could have strengthened me by your spirit more so I didn't sin. Both of those are wrong ways. He doesn't tempt anyone. By the way, the real problem when we are tempted is found in ourselves. Verse 14.
Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Frankly, on a side note, I would say this. If you've ever gotten an argument or discussion or fight or debate or sparks have flown between you and maybe your spouse or you and some employer or something like that and you've said some words and then you go back and you say, you know, please forgive me.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said. I know what you're saying when you say that. But a long time ago, I thought I might as well not say that anymore because it's not true. What comes out of here, we'll learn just in a moment in James chapter 3, is hooked to what's in my heart.
And when I said those things against that person, whether it's my wife or kids or anyone else, I what? Meant it. Now I don't want that to happen. I don't want to have that said that. I regret what I said.
I'm sorry for what I said. Please forgive me. The enemy is not, well, you know, I have a headache or I'm sick or I didn't get much sleep. We have a thousand excuses that may contribute to our weakness when we are tempted.
But at the end of the day, it's just so much better to say, I have no excuses, honey. I just sinfully, selfishly said these things and did these things. I'm thankful that God doesn't kick me out of the kingdom for doing these things because my security and surety is found in Christ Jesus, who never would say anything to you like that.
I have his righteousness credited to me. Do you think you have it in your heart to forgive me? I really want your forgiveness and I want to move on. I'm sorry. That's the way we do it versus all these kind of reasons why we did it.
An apology just means these are the reasons why I did it. Here's why we did it. We're sinful at the core, even though we're redeemed. There's a sin hangover that we have and we just sinned and we ask for forgiveness.
If you confess your sins and forsake your sins, God gives you what? Mercy. That's what we're after. But we don't think that way when we're not a Christian. And now we think that way. That's a test of saving faith.
If you think this way, you think, well, I don't do it perfectly and I didn't do it last week, but I sure would like to do it and I have a desire to do the right thing. Those are signs that you're a Christian.
Test number three found in verse 19 and following your response to the word of God. Your response to the word of God. There's two responses. One is you hear and do. The other one is you hear and don't do.
When you're an unbeliever, you hear and or you don't hear. I don't even want to hear what God says. But James says here in verses 19 and following that it's just not good enough to come hear the word of God.
If you were if James walked in here today right now and said, you know, how many people were here on Sunday morning? He would not go. Great. The place was packed. Glad everybody was here. He might say, how many people were here on Sunday morning and are resolved to try to obey what you've learned?
Then there would be applause from the apostle, as it were. It's not just good enough to hear the word of God. You can't just listen and then slap yourself in the back for hearing sermons. It's good to hear sermons, but with the resolution to obey.
Verse 23 of James 1, if for anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. And then after he looks at himself, verse 24, he goes away. He just forgets.
On the flip side, verse 25, but one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty and abides by it. He is the one who's blessed in what he does. Test number four, found in chapter two, verses one through 13.
The test of prejudice are discrimination. Basically, if you see the glory of Christ Jesus, you won't see the color of other people's skin. If you see the glory of Christ Jesus, you won't ask yourself the question, they dress too poorly for me.
I'm above them. Compared to the glory of Christ Jesus, we're all just flat. Verse one, my brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. And he says, do not hold your faith in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
He says down in verse 12, speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. Act in a way according to a way that you'd like to be judged. Verse 13, for judgment will be merciless to the one who is shown no mercy.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. Test number five, the last test in review, is found in verses 20, excuse me, verses 14 to 26 in chapter two. This is a faith that works. Do you have a faith that works? And before, we used to listen, we used to say we have a faith, we believed in something, but it didn't really flesh itself out.
There was no incarnational aspect to what we believe, but now there is. For Christians, there is. Verse 14, what use is it, my brethren, if someone continually says he has faith, but he continually has no works?
That faith can't save him. There's no profit, there's no credit in the credit-debit ledger to a faith that just says I believe, but doesn't really do anything. If you are really persuaded of, and you have a verification of, and you say I have confidence in, and I trust in the work of another, it will manifest itself in your life.
Hebrews chapter 11 is a book, is a chapter that shows that faith works. All right, now we come to our new section tonight, test number six, the tongue test, T-O-N-G-U-E, the tongue test. Did you know, I found out on the internet, that by the color of someone's tongue, you can determine if that person has a sickness.
Did you know that? I found that fascinating. If the tongue is black, a person could have mycrophytes or liver disease. If the tongue is bluish, you could have asthma or heart disease. If the tongue is dark brown, you could have Addison's disease.
If the tongue is pale, you could have anemia. If you have a red tongue, it could be early signs of typhoid fever. If your tongue looks like a strawberry with color and form, it could be scarlet fever.
If your tongue is yellow, you could have jaundice. Isn't that interesting? The great Puritan Thomas Brooks said it this way, we know metals by their tinkling and men by their talking. You look at someone's tongue, you can tell if they've got a disease.
You listen to someone speak, you can know a lot about the person. And the problem is, we all talk all day long. By the way, on a side note, Kim said, of course you should do the radio show. That's your favorite thing in the world.
It's just to talk. And now you don't get paid, but it's ministry and you just get to sit and talk all you want. You get to hold the cough button, the mute button, the hang up button. We have all the information here, the technological information now that I can receive phone calls at the church.
And I can't wait. There's a little call accept button and a drop button. And I just can't wait to have somebody going off about some kind of thing. And in a nice way, I have to figure out how to, in a Christian way, hang up on people.
I'm still working on that. It's got to have an edge, no compromise, but I just can't wait to just hit that drop button. Drop. Some say we spend one fifth of our lives talking. Thirteen continual years of nonstop talking.
That's a lot of opportunity to say the wrong thing. It is hard for Christians at a church baseball game to not fall into the pattern of, hey, bada, bada, bada, swing. We want a pitcher, not a belliature.
I mean, I don't know what they say. And do they say that in church games? I hope not. We shove our mouths into gear and pop the clutch on thousands of statements we wish we could just take back. It may be the easiest way to sin in all the world by sinning with our tongues.
The World War II slogan is loose lips sink ships. They also destroy friendships, marriages, and churches, sadly. James is going to tell us, watch out for the tongue. And if you see the tongue, you'll see the heart.
If you see someone's tongue, you know what's going on in the heart. For out of the mouth speaks that which fills the heart. You want to find if someone's mature or not? The easiest way to determine someone's maturity is just listen to them.
Not what they do necessarily, although that contributes, but just what the Greek philosopher said is probably right. Here's what they would say. Say something so I can see you. Isn't that interesting?
It's true. So it's important. And so James says, the way you deal with your speech will be different once you're saved than it was when you were unsaved. And so we're not saying perfection. We're not saying you have to perfectly obey.
We're not saying you're not going to sin. But when you do, you're going to be sad about it and repent. But you will speak differently and you'll think differently if you're a Christian. This is a test.
He said, do you talk the same way you did before you were a Christian? Look at the damage you can do in James chapter 3, verse 3. When it comes to the tongue, he first talks about teachers. They stumble in all kinds of ways, including the way they talk.
Be careful. And now he talks a little bit more about the tongue. And he gives different illustrations. Look at the horse and bridle illustration, verse 3. Now, if we put bits into the horse's mouth so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well.
And the idea here is something small controls something big. Something small has an interesting way to control. A relatively small bit controls a large animal. Now, what James is not saying is don't ever talk.
Go be a monk someplace. Be a Trappist monk. And Trappist monks are known for something very interesting. And what are Trappist monks known for? Silence. Don't talk. That's not what we're after. It's not abstinence of talking.
It's control. And so you've got... Imagine, how much does a horse weigh? Who knows how much a horse weighs? Pardon me? No, that's wrong. Let me make up my own number. 500 pounds. No, let's just say a ton.
It's a horse. And this horse, you can just... Ever see a horse up close? I'll never forget the time I went to Louisville to graduate from Southern Seminary. And I said, you know what, honey? We're not going to bet on the horse.
But let's go to the Kentucky Derby and just walk down to the very front and watch these things run. Let's just get up close. And you could just see the veins and the muscle and the sinew of those horses.
And I thought, no wonder they call an energy unit in a boat or a car, what? Horsepower. And you've got a little tiny bit, a little tiny bridle can control this 2 ,000-pound horse. I had a friend once.
I was working on the farm with him. And we were about 17 years old. And the people were these very rich folks. And they tried to give us a job for the summer. We'd been coming back for four or five summers.
We were engendered into their family. We'd eat with them for lunch. And they said, you can do whatever you want. You drive the tractors. You do whatever you'd like here on this farm. And then the guy said to Scott and I, there's only one thing I don't want you to do in this entire farm.
He said, see that horse over there? That's my horse. Nobody rides that horse. So what do you think two young 16 and 17-year-old unbelievers wanted to do? I didn't want to do it because I was afraid I'd get in trouble.
My rebelliousness wanted to do it. But I was also a pragmatist. And I didn't like discipline afterwards. And so Scott went over. And when they were gone doing some things across town, he got on that horse.
Untied the horse and hopped up on that guy's horse. But he didn't put on any kind of bit or bridle. And I could just see that horse running full blast across the farm. Scott's grabbing the hair on this thing, riding bareback.
And he could not control that horse. It was a good punishment because he ought not to have done that. But he had no way to control the horse because there's nothing in the horse's mouth. And it just kept running all the way across.
And I just thought at any other time, this has been the most hilarious thing that I've ever seen. But I thought as he gets in trouble, so do I. Guilt by association. No obedience without the bit. Small things control.
Look at the other illustration he gives in verse four. The rudder controls the ship. By the way, they had ships back in those days that could hold 600 people, Josephus says. But even if it's an aircraft carrier, the same principle applies.
Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very what? Small rudder. Wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So they just go whichever way the pilot wants them to go.
Well, how does this apply to my tongue, James? Verse five. So also the tongue is a small part of the body. See, small yet controls. Yet it boasts of great things. Prideful things. Chuck Swindoll says this two ounce slab of mucus membrane gets us into a lot of trouble.
Curtis Fawn, the commentator, said it can sway men to violence or it can move them to the noblest actions. It can instruct the ignorant, encourage the dejected, comfort the sorrowing and soothe the dying.
Or it can crush the human spirit, destroy reputations, spread distrust and hate and make nations to bring nations to the brink of war. Here's what James says. Don't underestimate the power of your tongue for negative or for positive.
The negative. Look at this illustration. Verse five. Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. It only takes a spark to get a fire going. I lived in Los Angeles for long enough to know that it's one little match before all the Malibu homes are burnt to a crisp.
The bit, the rudder, the tongue, they all have the same characteristics. It's small, but they affect a lot. James says, do you know, there's nothing more dangerous in your life than your own speech. Look at verse six.
The tongue is a fire. Look at that figure of speech. It's not even like a fire. The tongue is a fire. A great metaphor. The tongue is a fire. James basically says, let's change the world one tongue at a time.
That's how you change the world. The tongue sees something and it can just burn it like a flamethrower. You ever watch one of those flamethrowers where all of a sudden there's some people in some kind of a little hut and the guys light that flamethrower up and it just sucks all the oxygen and it just burns them to a crisp.
That's like the tongue. Can you think of a sin that you commit that the tongue's not involved? Well, you probably can think of a few, but it's involved a lot. Look at what he calls it. The very world, you see in verse six, a very world of iniquity.
One man said, if all men were dumb, what a portion of the crimes of the world would soon cease. Homer said, words have wings. They influence. Did you know for every word in Hitler's book Mein Kampf, 125 lives were lost in World War II.
What does it do? It doesn't just affect some things, it affects everything. And the tongue is set among members as that which defiles the entire body. Tongues direct the entire body and it defiles the entire body.
It sets on fire the course of our life. And is set on fire by, what's the text say? Hell. If you go to my garage, I have some tools there and I have, you know, basically one screwdriver and a crescent wrench.
No, that's not true. I've got some other tools there. How would you like your tongue to be used as Satan's ratchet? It's his tool. I don't like to be manipulated. And so here James says, Satan, the slander, the liar, can use you for spokesperson kind of quality.
In other words, you're Satan's press agent. Puritan Johnstone said, how appalling the thought should be to the careless talker, the man of unchastened lips, that his words are really Satan's, for which yet he himself is responsible, that his utterances are doing on himself and those around him, the devil's work.
That when he pours forth from his lips, profane or impure or unkind language, he is in truth, breathing out flames lighted from the bottomless pit. No wonder Paul said, if you're going to be a deacon's wife, you ought not to be diabolist tongue.
You ought not to be devil tongue, slanderous. If you're a deacon's wife, you better not be a she devil. Verse seven, taking a little more time here because it's breaks us. And that's what should happen to both you and me.
Verse seven, every species of beast and birds and reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue. You can tame a killer whale, but you can't tame that two ounce slab of mucus membrane.
I read a little bit about how Pliny told how the Roman emperors trained particular fish in ponds that would come to them when they were called by their name. And you'd say, all right, you call a fish name and a fish would come up and answer by its name.
Everything, it seems, has been tamed. But the tongue is wild, undisciplined, irrepressible, savage, brute. No one can tame the tongue. Not the best orators, not Winston Churchill, no one. It's like a caged animal.
You ever see a caged animal and it just kind of makes that little path back and forth, back and forth. And it's just waiting to get out through the bars of your front teeth. What do they call the front teeth, by the way?
Pardon me? Eye teeth. Is that what they're called? Facing back and forth. Are these the eye teeth? How's the eye teeth? Okay, this is not dentistry, but you know what I mean. Could it be that taming the tongue is harder than the drunk leaving his vodka?
The crack cocaine addict leaving his crack pipe? Or the gambler saying, I don't need that deck of cards? The answer is yes. Calvin said, other vices are corrected by age or by process of time. They drop off from our lives, but we don't have control over our own tongue.
And it just sits there waiting to pounce. Look at verse 8. It's a restless evil full of deadly poison. Skull and crossbones right over there. You can't tame your tongue. And so what do we do? We have to say, God, you're going to have to tame it.
You're going to be the one who has to subdue it. And then James uses some good logic. So we're saying to ourselves, I would hate to be like that. Verse 9. With it, we bless our Lord and Father. And we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth, both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Question, does a fountain send out the same opening, both fresh and bitter water? No. Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives?
That'd be funny. Or a vine tree produce figs? Neither can salt water produce fresh. If Peter himself, one moment says, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. 30 some verses later, Peter says, when the girl says, you too were with Jesus the Galilean.
And Peter said, I don't know what you're talking about. That sounds like John Bunyan's talkative in the Pilgrim's Progress. He was a saint abroad and a devil at home. And so James says this, my brethren, it ought not to be this way.
When you hear the tongue talked about like that, don't you in your heart say, I'd like to speak better. I'd like to speak more honorably. I'd like to speak things that will glorify the Lord instead of the things that I used to say.
Don't you say that? That's what I say. Test number 7. Test number 7 found in chapter 3 verses 13 through 18. And this is the wisdom test. And basically, James says this. You can study wisdom all day long, but if it doesn't flesh itself out in works, you're not wise.
You can study Gnosticism. You can study Essenism. You can study Plato. You can study Socrates. Today, you can study Nietzsche. You can study Foucault. You can study anybody you want. But if you only know things and you're not acting in a wise way, a Christian way, you're not wise at all.
You go to the philosophy class at Harvard and the pagan isn't wise who teaches that class. He's a fool. That's what James says. Before we were saved, we thought real wisdom was academic wisdom. Now we say real wisdom has feet to it and it fleshes itself out in good works.
Verse 13. Who among you is wise and understanding? You say you're smart. You say you're wise. You say you're a philosopher. You say you know the things of the world. If you do, what does James say? I mean, just look at how he preaches.
It's just this pushing back. You say this? Prove it. That's his attitude. Let him show by his what? Good behavior. His deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. There's a book. Oh, I wish I could think of the name of it right now.
There's a book called. Oh, I should. I just thought of it right now. It wasn't in my notes. It's a book about some of the most important philosophers of our time. And it shows how corrupt they were. Thank you.
Thank you. The Intellectuals by Paul Johnson. And you read The Intellectuals by Paul Johnson. And it's exact. That's good. Did you read it? You know what? I started to read it, Dan. I got about three quarters of the way full.
And I was grossed out by the immorality and the perversion that was found. And for instance, I think it was Rousseau who basically wants to kill his kids kind of thing. And you think this is wisdom. This is the best the world offers for wisdom.
And it fleshes itself out in absolute corruption. Paul Johnson, the Roman Catholic historian, that'd be an excellent book to read. That was MacArthur who said, you guys need to read that because real wisdom shows itself in godliness.
Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the what? Boastfulness, prideful, the way he has wisdom? No, in the gentleness of wisdom. If wisdom is moral insight and skill in deciding the practical issues of conduct, then what you know, you will do.
Good behavior. Wisdom is tested by works, not words. It's one thing to say you're wise. It's one thing to proclaim yourself as wise. It's one thing to teach wisdom. But it's none of that if it's all talk and no action.
You don't show you're wise by smooth talk, but by action. There's false wisdom. Show me somebody who's in the book intellectuals, and I'll show you somebody at verse 14 who has bitter jealousy, there's strife, selfish ambition.
Arrogance, verse 14. Lies against the truth, Foucault, verse 14. Verse 15, the wisdom. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above. James, in the way he preaches, you know, lots of times they wouldn't say God, they'd say from heaven or from above.
This isn't God's wisdom, but is earthly, natural. And what's the next one? Literally, demonical, that which is pertaining to demons. Show me someone who says I'm wise and teaches a philosophy class, but lives an immoral life.
That's demonical, James says. Some say, I've got inspired wisdom. And James says, yes, you do, inspired by Satan. Jonathan Edwards said, although the devil be exceedingly crafty and subtle, yet is one of the greatest fools and blockheads in the world.
As the subtlest of wicked men are. Sin is of such a nature that it strangely infatuates and stiltifies the mind. In other words, we know lots of super smart people that act in a corrupt fashion. And it's not God's wisdom at all.
If you are wise, how do you act? Verse 17. This is how I'd like to act. But the wisdom from above, from God, from heaven is first pure, then peaceable, gentle. This is how real wise people act. We didn't think wise people act like this before we got saved.
But now we know. Reasonable, full of mercy, good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. Test number eight. We're not going to finish tonight, but let's just do test number eight. Found in chapter four, verses one to four.
And it's the test of hedonism. The diagnostic question comes in chapter four, verse one. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Well, it's interesting that he's talking about peace in chapter three, verse 18.
And I think he's probably thinking of peace, last word in chapter three. And now he thinks the opposite of peace, which is a quarrel and a fight and a war. And so he says, what is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?
Quarrels and conflicts and wars are only symptoms to what's inside. Correct? They're just symptoms. What's the source of those things? The root is found in the second question in chapter four, verse one.
Is not the source your what? Hedonon, your hedonism that wage war in your members. You've got quarrels, plural. You've got conflicts, plural. And you've got pleasures, hedonon, plural. Is the source not your pleasures that wage wars?
The cause of strife is selfish pleasure seeking. The kind of club med philosophy that says power, money, prestige, possessions, gratification of bodily lust, thrills. Herod got in trouble because he loved pleasure.
Judas got in trouble because he loved money. Hezekiah got in trouble because he loved the display and pomp and circumstance. Theatrophies love the preeminence. What's the source of your conflicts and troubles?
Social status, environment, external influences? No. Each of us has turned to his what? Own way. And there's a war. You ever play that game Stratego? Who knows the game Stratego? All right. That's the word where we get the Greek word to war.
It's a strategy. It's a military battle. There's a military battle going on. What's the source? You've got what I want. And I want it so badly. I'm going to take it from you. John Blanchard said, the simple answer is surely that a man can only satisfy all of his own self-centered desires by conflicting with the desires of other people.
I'm going to do whatever I want. And what I want is probably going to intersect with who you are. And therefore, sadly, we need to have prisons and police and everything else. Try to curb that. If you please yourself to the nth degree, it will cost other people.
That's what James is saying. Selfish desires lead to what? Verse two, lust. And you don't have, so you commit murder. Now, by the way, he just got done talking about the strategy, this military kind of war.
Now here comes these military orders. Staccato, machine gun kind of style. You desire you don't have, you murder. You're jealous and can't obtain, you battle and make war. Four times. You, you, you, you.
Self getting ourselves into trouble again. Well, in the old days, we used to try to live our lives full of pleasure. There's nothing wrong with pleasure and nothing wrong with rest. Nothing wrong with vacations.
But they all have their place. We don't think of pleasure and vacations and all this kind of lifestyle, lust and having like we used to. We think differently. All right. Well, I did what did that one so fast.
I got to go to the next test. Test number nine. You ready? We have some sugar. We have some non-sugar snacks afterwards. And so I'd invite everyone to stay for the non-sugar snacks. Did anybody bring sugar?
Number, we're 39 minutes in. So we can go. Can't we? Let's keep going. All right. Might as well. Number nine. Test number nine. The pride test. The pride test. And he talks about two different kinds of pride.
The first pride is speaking negatively of someone else. Putting them down to make yourself look good. It's the fault finding type of thing. Verse 11. Do not speak against one another. James chapter 4, verse 11.
Do not speak against one another. Literally, don't speak down. Don't speak down on people. This could contain all kinds of different things. False accusations, exaggeration, needless repetition of real faults, defamation, slander, extreme personal criticism, judgmental attitudes, quarreling, bickering, putting people down.
I remember when I was an unbeliever. I went to Vegas for the very first time. And I wanted to go to the Tropicana. And I got front row seats to the person who basically does this for a living back in the day.
And if you're old enough, you'll know who I'm talking about. Who is the person who made a living putting other people down? Don Rickles. Don't be some... Does anybody know who Don Rickles is? Some do.
Okay. Don't be that kind of person in the church. That just shows that you're prideful because you want to try to make yourself look good. And look at what James says. Don't bulldoze people over with your words because, verse 11a, you're brethren.
It's your own family. You ever stick up for somebody who's in your own family? And you think, I'll never forget the day somebody hit my younger brother, Pat. And I hope I wasn't over 18 years old when I went down there to go defend him.
But I went over to this other guy and I said, you're not going to do this anymore to my younger brother. And I didn't punch him, but I kind of whacked him a little bit. I thought, man, in laws today, if I would have been over 18, I would have been in, you know, having a prison ministry now.
I don't know what I would have had. It wasn't a closed fist. But there's something about your brother, your family, your mother, you know, your wife. And James says, this is your family. You're going to put your own family down?
It's like putting yourself down. Don't do that. He also said there's another reason not to do it. Because you're judging the law itself. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law.
You're an evil critic of the law. I don't care what God says. I'll do what I want, when I want, how I want it. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. You're over the law.
We don't want to do that. Our law should be back in James chapter 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. We might not think today that speaking evil against a neighbor or another member of church is a big deal.
But to God, it's a very big deal. Because it impinges upon God's royal law called love one another. Basically, what you're trying to do is, you're trying to attack them. But you're going to attack them to make yourself look good.
And you're up on some kind of perch. And you're better. See the difference between the two of us. We're to be doers of the law, not judges of the law. There's only one lawgiver, verse 12. There's only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy.
And that one is not you. Frankly, we're incapable to judge the law, verse 12. But who are you to judge your neighbor? The answer compared to God who gives the law, we can't do it at all. It's just prideful.
We just ought to confess it as pride. Repent and move forward. But James shows, lastly for tonight, another interesting way that people are prideful. And this pridefulness shows in self-sufficiency. This is the one we might struggle with the most.
Maybe it's me who struggles with it the most. How does this self-sufficiency find itself in our lives? Verse 13. This is James's best. You can hear him. Come now, you who say. There are people who say this.
And he says, now, I want to talk to you. Come now, you people who say this. I've got some news for you. Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city. Spend a year there. Engage in business and make a profit.
James tried to get their attention. Come now. Everybody pay attention because we all make our little plans. And James says, you ought to make sure there's a DV at the bottom of your plans. Does anybody know the Latin word for Lord?
Okay, DV we'll have to do. DV, Latin for God willing. We make plans, of course. But we need to make sure we realize that there is a sovereign God over us. And you can just hear this guy. What's he do?
He says, well, today or tomorrow, I've got some travel plans and we'll go. I know I'll go at such and such a time to such and such a city. It's like he gets a map out and he goes, I think I'll go to this city for business.
I'll go down there for three days. I'll take care of all these things there. I'll spend a year there. I'll work in my business. You don't want to know the Greek word for business here. You'll like it.
Emporium. I'll do my emporium stuff there and make a profit. Kind of this Jewish merchant that James is talking to. And this person is so prideful and self-sufficient. He or she forgets to mix religion with business.
Did you get that? Forgets to realize that God's sovereign over all this business and could stop everything this moment, could change everything. And so we say, you know, we better consult God when we make these plans.
You can have your five-year plan for your life, but you need to make sure you know that God can X through at any time he would like to. The plans of the heart belong to a man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16. Why do we have to act like this? Verse 14. Why do you need to say whatever God does in my life? He's sovereign. You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. Look at verse 14. You're just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
What will happen tomorrow? Does anyone know? Can anyone know? This might be the last day we live. You might think you're going to Los Angeles tomorrow or Saskatchewan to tomorrow or someplace else and you should plan those things, but we don't know what's going to happen to tomorrow or in tomorrow.
We don't know, but God does. It's kind of like the high-pressure life insurance guy. If you don't want to buy a policy now, think about it tonight and call me in the morning. If you wake up, right? God is the sovereign one.
Go to this city, set in such time, set in such place, do this important. That's acting like I'm a little sovereign. Only God's sovereign. Verse 15. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we'll live and also do this or that.
Planning's fine, but we know our plans, hopes, dreams, aspirations should have a qualification. It's not some closed system. The Greeks used to say, if the gods will. Muslims say, if Allah wills. Here, make no mistake.
This is if Kurios wills. The absolute sovereign God, Jesus Christ himself. You cannot ignore providence. If should be the Christian motto. And I think actually, who wrote the book called If? Book of Poetry.
Her name was Amy Carmichael. We make plans in the morning. By nighttime, who knows what will happen? If God wills. Acts chapter 18, verse 21. I will return to you again, if God wills, Paul said. First Corinthians 4.
Paul said, I'll come to you soon, if the Lord wills. First Corinthians 16. I do not wish to see you now, just in passing, for I hope to remain with you for some time, if the Lord permits. Hebrews chapter 6.
And we shall do this, if God permits. Methodists and Puritans used to sign their letters, D .V. God willing. And then, look at verse 16. He gets back to this pride issue. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance.
When you plan and live like that, you are prideful, he says. You're arrogant and you're boasting. I'll do this when I want, how I want, according to how I want, with whom I want. Such boasting is what?
Gonna hurt your self-esteem. No, it's evil. This boasting is wicked. I don't mean New England wicked. I mean wicked, evil. It robs God his honor. So what do we do? Verse 17. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is a sin.
People just take this verse right out of the Bible. Well, if you know the right thing to do and don't do it, it's sin. That could be true. But here is, if you know the right thing to do. God, this calendar that I have, it says, you will, whatever you want, I will gladly go to plan B anytime you'd like, plan C.
This is your plan. I mean, these are my plans, but I'd like you to help me through them. You providentially guide me. I'll go wherever you want, whenever you want, how you want, or I'll stay home. You're the one that leads me through this.
And if you don't do that, then what? He says, then that is sin. Because you know to do the right thing, and if you don't do it, it's sin. Boy, we have a few tests left, and we'll do that. I don't think we have service next Sunday night, do we?
Is there a prayer meeting? Dave, do you know? We'll talk about that next week. Here's the final question. Are you different from when, are you different, are you a different person? You say, pastor, just spit it out.
Just get to it. Trying to think about just the exact right way to say it. There should be two chapters to your life, before you were saved and after you're saved. And the person who's in that book, in chapter one and chapter two, has the same outside, looks the same.
Talks the same way in terms of intonation and dialect and all that. But that person in chapter one and chapter two, if you're a Christian, is radically different. Maybe not perfectly different. Maybe not in a mature way different.
But you should be able to look back at your old life. Sometimes we're not supposed to look back in our old life too much. But I think this is a good way to do it. I have joy now in trials I never had before.
I don't blame everybody else for my temptations. I blame me now. I try to be a doer of the word of God. And there's many cases in my life, by the spirit's power and for his glory, I am a doer of the word.
I used to be a racist, discriminatory person. I now love all people. Because if Jesus loved them, I love them too. I used to have faith, but it had no works. I have works now. I used to have a tongue that was just, I didn't care who it flame-throwed.
And now I'm concerned about it. I used to have wisdom, thinking the smartest people were at universities. And now I think the smartest people are those who know the Bible and live it out. I used to love pleasure as it was my God.
And now I realize in its rightful place, pleasure has a place in Christianity. And then I say, you know what? I ought not to speak poorly of people because I'm not over them. I'm with them. I'm not a judge of the law.
And I have to plan my life that God's in charge. And you'll say, that person in chapter A is not the same person in chapter B, chapter 2, chapter 1. And if you're the same person in chapter 1 and chapter 2, then tonight is the night that you confess Jesus as Lord.
Because if there's no difference between the two chapters, there's no difference in your standing before God. So tonight's the night to say, I repent. I believe. I follow the risen Savior. Let's pray.
Lord, it's good to be in your house with your dear people. And Lord, if we were underneath the trees in the jungle, underneath some kind of banyan tree in India, it wouldn't matter. It'd be good just to have the word, to have it open, to sing praises.
Of you and your work and your son. And then to have fellowship. And Lord, I praise you that in our fellowship time, in just a few minutes, we have different backgrounds, personalities. Many of us would never be friends at all if you hadn't called us to your son.
And then now, we're more than friends. We're family. And Lord, for some of us here, for many of us, we are closer to one another than we are our own family. And we thank you that you've done a great work in our hearts.
And you'll be faithful to finish it. In Jesus' name, amen.