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Jesus said in John 8 47, whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why we don't hear the word of God is because we are not of God. It is by His Spirit within us that helps us to understand His words when we understand the text.
You are listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the word.
Of God.
For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everybody. We're in James chapter 3 again today, verses 1 through 12. Open up your Bible and join with me there, James chapter 3, verses 1 through 12. Yesterday, we only got as far as verse 1, but we'll get a little bit further than that again today.
Let's begin reading there. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body.
If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also. Though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire, and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things are not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs?
Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. So we come back to verse 1, which was primarily where we spent our time yesterday and looked at some other scriptures in correlation with it. James chapter 3, beginning in verse 1, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body. In other words, nobody can speak perfectly. We can't do it. Nobody can perfectly speak the word of God either, which is why, praise God, he's given us his word that we have that we can follow, and it is that that we are to preach, not our own thoughts and ideas and ascribe them to God, but rather taking God's thoughts and ascribing them onto our minds, and then what we speak comes from his word and not.
Ours.
And so, if we are guided by the word of God, it's like having a bit in our mouth, like you would put a bit into the mouth of a horse. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
And so, if the word of God is guiding us, our whole bodies are guided by it. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 12, verse 1, to present ourselves as holy and pleasing sacrifices unto the Lord, this is our spiritual act of worship.
In view of God's mercy, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. That's what he says there in Romans 12, 1. And so, our bodies are able to be offered to the Lord as living sacrifices if our mind, our thoughts, our words are being guided by his word.
So it's like a bit in our mouths that guides us when we fill ourselves up with the word of God. This is what David meant when he said, your word, O Lord, is a light unto my feet and a lamp unto my path.
I think I got that backwards. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
There we go.
And so, it is our very step, every single step being guided by God, his word directing our steps. Look at the ships also, James says, another illustration that he uses here, though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
So also, the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. So once again, our tongues are either being guided by the pilot, which is God, or it's just kind of flapping with the winds that are tossing the boat to and fro.
We have that metaphor of every shifting wind of doctrine that Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 4. And so, we are being tossed to and fro by the winds and that rudder not being guided by anything, but it's just helping to shift the boat in every which direction if it's not the pilot that is at the helm and is directing us as we go, as we are being guided on the.
Seas.
So, the tongue also is a small member. Is that rudder being guided by the pilot who is God, or is it just flapping uncontrollably? All right? And that would be the case with us if we are not being guided by the word of God.
It's like a flapping rudder, and the boat's really not going anywhere at all, being tossed to and fro in the wind. Now, there was a passage of scripture that I didn't read yesterday when it came to this warning about false teachers, when it came to those who misused the word of God and led people astray.
There's one that I wanted to throw in there and just forgot to use it. Second Peter chapter 3 verse 14, Peter says,. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found in him without spot or blemish and at peace.
In other words, while we are waiting for the return of Christ, let us continue to live in holiness so that when he comes, we will be faithful servants. He'll find us as faithful servants serving until the day he arrives.
Verse 15,. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.
There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
So it is God that keeps us stable and steady on the course that we are on. And our tongues are guided by his word instead of worldly thoughts. So let us fill our minds up with the word of God, having our very hearts changed by God's word.
James goes on once again in James chapter three, how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. It takes takes one little match, you know, a flame on the end of that match that's smaller than a flame you would have on a candle.
And that one little flame can set an entire forest ablaze. And the tongue is like that. The words that we speak when we speak destructive words instead of words that are meant to encourage one another and build one another up, Ephesians 429, that we are supposed to build one another up with our words instead of tear each other down.
And if instead we speak things that are dishonoring to God and dishonoring to the people that we talk to, it's the equivalent of a small flame that sets an entire forest on fire. The tongue is that kind of fire, a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell. Our entire bodies are corrupt, everything about ourselves. When we consider the words that we speak, because Jesus said it is by our words that we will be justified and it is by our words that we will be condemned.
In other words, we will be able to verify by the words that we say. People will be able to know by the way that we speak, whether we are from God or whether we are from the devil. There's only one of two masters that you can serve.
It's either God or Satan. Those are your options. Those who are of God will speak the words of God. Those who are of the devil will speak lies. They speak satanic words. As it says in John chapter eight, Jesus said, if God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I am here.
I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. Plain and simple.
You know, when it comes to trying to figure out why there are people who do not believe, there's all of these debates that are going on right now about how do we reach young millennials? Well, the answer to that is very simple.
Same way that we have been reaching people for the last 2 ,000 years, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is how a person is brought from death to life, period. There is no other way. Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
And even James has said to us here in James chapter 1, that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change of his own will.
He brought us forth by the word of truth. That is how a person comes to faith, by the word of God. And so there's still, again, like I said, these arguments and these debates on how do we reach the post-Christian?
How do we reach the nuns? Those that have no religious affiliation. How do we reach the laws, the agnostics, atheists, same way you reach anybody with the gospel of Christ. Yet we go on debating about these methods and all of this other kind of stuff.
The reason why a person doesn't believe is because you're not following this method. No, folks, we have it from the very words of Christ right here. The reason why a person doesn't believe in the word of God is because they are not from God.
They're of the devil, not of God. Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. When Jesus says to repent and believe, these are commands. They're not suggestions.
You know, I recommend that you repent of your sins and you believe in me in order to be saved. That's my recommendation. No, Jesus is commanding that we turn from our sin and we believe on his name. Repent and believe are commands.
Those who are his sheep will hear them and follow them. Those who are not his sheep won't. Now we don't know who the elect are. Only God knows who the elect are. But we have been charged by God to take his word to the world so that his sheep would hear his voice and would turn from their worldliness and follow him.
That is our job to do that. And so we take the word to the world, telling them to turn from sin and follow Christ. And those who are of the elect of God will hear the word. They will repent of their sin and they will follow Christ.
And then the authenticness, the authenticity, I think I did that yesterday, didn't I? Making up words, authenticness. The authenticity of the faith that they have in Christ will be shown in that they live.
In it.
They grow in it, that there is sanctification happening in their lives. They're maturing in matters of faith and holiness and righteousness, verifying that the justification that they claim that they have in Christ is true.
It's legit, man. And so we need to take the gospel to the world because it is only that gospel that will turn a person from worldliness into the kingdom of God. They will go from being a citizen of the world, a fallen citizen of this world, into being a born-again citizen of the kingdom of God.
And it is only by the word of God that that happens. There is no other way a person turns from their sin and comes to the truth and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so we need to take this message.
And those of us who are in Christ, as we talked about early this week on Monday, we need to show even by our speech that we are members of that kingdom, that we are not of the devil, but we are of God.
If we're of the devil, we'll speak lies like the devil did. If we are of God, then we will speak the truth because God is truth and the truth is in him. And so we must declare the truth with our words, showing even by our words that we have been changed and transformed in Christ.
For the tongue, especially the worldly tongue, one that is being guided by the devil, having been ensnared by him, is a fire set on fire by hell. As it says in James 3 .6, for every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. Our words are poisonous if our mind, our hearts, thoughts, our tongues have not been transformed by Christ. With such a tongue, we bless our Lord and father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. When we curse a person, we are cursing somebody that was made in the image of God. We blaspheme the very image of God.
When we curse another or speak ill about them. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 that the law says do not murder, but if you even have hate in your heart for a brother, then you have committed murder against him in your heart.
If you have even called him names, you are guilty of the hell of fire. And the reason for that is because we have cursed someone that was made in the image of God and therefore have cursed God himself.
And this is the way things ought not to be. This is hypocrisy. It's the very hypocrisy that people live by. That they would even speak the praise of God in any way, shape, or form, but then would curse somebody else that's made in the image of God.
They are a hypocrite because they blaspheme the very image of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?
Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. And this is just like what Jesus said. A good tree will bear good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit.
A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. It is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire. So if we are in Christ, we will show with our words that we have been transformed in Christ. We are bearing fruit, giving honor to God with our words.
We are not only giving him praise, but we are also encouraging and growing up the members of the body of Christ, the brothers and sisters that we have in Christ Jesus by the words that we say. Not praising God and cursing our brothers and sisters, but encouraging them and building.
Them up.
Praising them also as we desire to be matured in Christ Jesus. Growing together into the head who is Christ. Let's conclude with prayer. Our great God, as we've read these things here, I pray that we continue to be convicted in the ways that we submit our tongues before you.
That even by the words that we say, we are giving glory to you. That we are showing that we are citizens of the kingdom of God in the words that we say. That we are of God and not of the devil. The reason why we love the word of God and speak the word of God is because we are of God.
Our father is God, not the devil. Because whoever's father is the devil speaks lies. Speaks out of his own character. For the devil is a liar and the father of lies. May we also alert people who are citizens of the kingdom of God, who claim to be in Christ Jesus.
May we alert them to the liars that they would not be led astray by them. But we seek the truth of God's word. We hear it and we understand it because we've been transformed by Christ and we have his spirit that helps us understand spiritual things.
We praise you God for this ability to read your word and understand it. In the name of Christ.
Amen.
You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching and we thank you for including us in your Bible learning.
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