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James says that not all of you should aspire to be teachers because we know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness. There are teachers out there who do not have that kind of conviction and they are misusing the Word of God to their destruction.
When we understand the text, you're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
And don't forget our website, www .utt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everybody. We are in the book of James, yep, continuing our study of James. Chapter 3, verses 1 through 12 is where we will be today. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there.
If you are doing something else, maybe driving in a car and cannot read along with me, that's fine. I'll read it to you, but would still encourage you to find some time later today to be in the Word with the Lord and in prayer.
James chapter 3, starting 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.
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 member, yet it boasts of many 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 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. We come back to chapter 3 verse 1 where James says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
This is a heavy burden upon me as a pastor, and if I allow myself to dwell on it long enough and think about it in a wrong way, it can cause me anxiety, thinking about delivering the word of God that I could say something wrong and then bring judgment upon myself.
But what puts me at ease is knowing that the words that I speak are not mine, but that I read the scriptures. I read the word of God, and I teach the word of God as it is given, not imposing my own thoughts onto this, but letting the word of God impose itself upon me.
And as I spend time preparing sermons that I'm going to be delivering on Sunday mornings, I will spend the whole week meditating on the passage that I am going to be delivering, and I will be experiencing conviction and change in my heart and mind based on what I am studying and reading.
And then I bring before my congregation what the Lord has been working on my heart over the course of the week. So then I put on my congregation the conviction that I had been experiencing over the week.
And so then from that point on, they experienced the week and the conviction that I had been in the week before while I'm being convicted by something else. And then we'll bring that into the pulpit, and we'll speak that conviction into my congregation so that their hearts are changed, that their minds are being renewed, that our thoughts are being submitted entirely to Christ, and we are growing in the knowledge of him and his word.
My submission is to the word of God. And unlike Andy Stanley, I don't just say that the word is inerrant and then don't use it. I believe that the word is the inerrant, infallible word of God, the Bible, and I submit myself to it and actually show in my practice and in my preaching that I believe all of it to be true by withholding nothing.
All of the Bible is relevant. All of it is necessary for God's people to hear it. And I will preach every dot and tittle that is in this word until my last breath. So help me, God. This is the burden that is upon me as a teacher.
And not everyone should aspire to be a teacher because not everyone has this kind of conviction about the word of God and will then misuse it. They will misuse it to their own vain and selfish ends. Not many of you should aspire to become teachers, my brothers, because teachers are judged with greater strictness.
I read from 2nd Peter chapter one yesterday. I want to read from 2nd Peter chapter two today, where Peter says, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
I heard Votie Bauckham preach a sermon one time on 2nd Timothy chapter four, which is where I'm going to go next, in fact. And and he said that there in Houston, Texas, he's in Zambia now. But at the time when he was preaching it at Family Baptist Church there in Spring, Texas, he said that people would ask him, why?
Why are there false teachers around Houston, Texas that preach such destructive heresies and their churches are full and overflowing with thousands of congregational members who do not want the sound words of God, but the words of this false teacher.
Why are these things going on? And Votie Bauckham will respond to them and say, because the Bible is true, because the Bible says there will be such false teachers and people will follow after those false teachers.
They will even deny the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. False teachers are a judgment appealing to the desires that those people already had in their hearts. They desire they have itching ears.
They desire to hear certain things. And so they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit those passions. And that's what the apostle Paul shares with Timothy and 2nd Timothy chapter four. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.
You have this, this declaration of conviction that Paul gives first in verse one of chapter four. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead. Every word that you speak, you will have to give an account of, as Jesus said, every idle word that we speak, we will give an account of in heaven.
And so we need to be under the conviction of Christ, especially when we speak his word, for he is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom. He's coming and you will not hide.
Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Whether you are in a time of preaching, a time of eldership, a time as a teacher, or you are not one of those teachers, still be ready with the word of God to preach it.
Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
And this stuff that Andy Stanley has been saying about this new method that we need to adopt in order to reach out to millennials or to the post-Christian or to the unbeliever, all of the rationalizations that he gives in into why we need to use this preaching approach to reach the young people who don't believe is surrounded by myths.
He preaches about the early church, the first three centuries of the church, and it's full of myths. The things that he says are not even historically accurate. And so you will find this as being the case with many false teachers that a lot of the things that they do, a lot of the practices, a lot of the methods that they use are just dripping with myth.
They will even make stuff up in the Bible that the Bible doesn't actually say. And so these are the teachers that people will gravitate toward because that's the desire in their heart. They don't want sound teaching, even if they say it, like even if Andy Stanley says that he believes that the word of God is inerrant, but he doesn't use it.
So he can't possibly believe in the power of God's word. And so if we believe that God's word is powerful, if it is, as it says in Hebrews, cutting through flesh and bone and marrow and piercing to the very soul of every man who hears it, then we will use it for it is the main weapon in our warfare when it comes to declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world.
Don't store up for yourselves teachers that that suit the passions of your flesh. Submit yourself instead to the true word of God entirely. The full preaching of the word of God. As the apostle Paul said to the Ephesians when he was leaving the Ephesians and he knew that while he was alive on this earth, he would not see those Ephesian elders again.
He said, I am. I am guiltless of the blood of any of you because I preach the full word of God and held nothing back. And so that is the responsibility that every teacher of the word of God is supposed to have.
That is the burden that I feel to a point that it could actually be depressing for me about delivering the word of God. If I did not also believe that God was sovereign and that the word that I speak is not mine, but his word, every preacher should have that kind of conviction.
And I do not boast in myself. The conviction that I have comes from Christ. It does not come from me. It is his holy spirit that is at work in me. It is his holy spirit that inspired this word. So it is his holy spirit that I speak whenever I speak this word, we must be convicted and hold fast to the word of Christ.
Not everybody desiring to be teachers because teachers are judged with greater strictness. A time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.
Why is it that people go after those teachers instead of the sound teachers of the word of God? Because the Bible is true. They will turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander off into myths because the myth just sounds more interesting to me than the truth.
So I like the myth and I'll listen to the myth tellers instead of the truth speakers. That's the way these people of the flesh, these worldly people who will go through their religious practices, but by their actions, they don't show confirmation of the justification they claim they have in Christ.
Verse five, as for you, Paul is saying to Timothy, as for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come.
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award me on that day.
And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Paul is basically saying to Timothy, be as convicted about preaching the word of God as I was. Look to me as an example. And Paul is in no way being haughty or prideful in saying that.
He said to the Philippians, look toward those who set an example for you on how to live and imitate their faith. We are told also in Hebrews chapter 13 to remember those who taught the word to us and imitate their way of life.
And so we have these models, these examples that have been set up for us to follow. And it is not hubris that would lead the apostle Paul to say to Timothy, imitate what it was that I did. For the conviction that Paul has and the sacrifices that he made came from Christ and not himself.
Wasn't by anything that he did, not of work so that no man may boast, but by the work of God on his life. Romans chapter 16, verse 17. The apostle Paul says here, I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.
Avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, as Paul is speaking specifically to the Roman Christians, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And so I also want to read one more convicting word from the Apostle John. We've heard from Peter.
We've heard from Paul. We've heard from James. Let us also hear from John when it comes to avoiding false teachers. First John 4, 1, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Who is he who is in the world? The false teacher. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us, and by this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error by what we read in the scriptures, in the true word of God.
So be convicted about the word of God and know that it is true. Know that what we read in the Bible is the truth, and you cannot divorce the word of God from God. You cannot divorce Christ from his word.
What we know about him written down in the Bible and what we know about the man Christ, what we know that he has said and he has done, all of these things are in scripture, and we have no other way of knowing about him except here.
So love the word of God and cherish it. And test all things by it. Be like the Bereans in Acts chapter 17 when the apostle Paul came to them sharing the gospel. They didn't just take his word for it, the apostle Paul, but they tested him according to the scriptures.
And so we must do the same as Paul said to the Thessalonians, test everything, hold fast to what is good, abhor what is evil, including the evil speak of false teachers. Our great God, I pray that you would put this conviction in our hearts to love the true and sound words of your son, Jesus Christ.
We do as Paul said to the Corinthians to have the word of Christ dwelling in us richly because we are richly blessed by the word of God. How can we know anything about God except what is given to us by your word?
And we are blessed to know your mind and know your heart because you have given this word to us to read and have even given us a spirit to be able to understand it. Thank you, Lord, and keep us responsible to this word, holding our teachers accountable as well for the words that they say, warning others about false teachers, and preaching the true words of Christ.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.
Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.