Big Picture Theology (Part 4) - [James 4]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, there's some debate on how to pronounce one of the men that the

Lord has used over the centuries. Do we say his name Augustine or Augustine?

People debate about that. But what's not debatable is one of the things he said.

If you should ask me, what are the ways of God? I would tell you that the first is humility.

The second is humility. And the third is, any guesses, humility.

Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are fruitless.

Are you a humble person? Kind of a tricky question, isn't it?

Of course, we want to be humble, but we all struggle with pride. Maybe this is an easier question.

Who is the most humble person to ever walk the earth? That one's easier, is it not?

Philippians says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. This morning, I'd like you to take your

Bibles and turn to James chapter 4, a chapter about pride and humility, and of course, since the

Lord Jesus was humble, we are expected to walk a life of humility.

It is godly to be humble, and it is sinful to be prideful. And so today we come to James chapter 4.

If you're new to the church or just with us, we're going chapter by chapter through the book of James. Sometimes we go faster or slower with different books of the

Bible, chapter by chapter, and the good thing about James 4 is it has a theme, and that theme is pride slash humility.

And there'll be three sections we'll go through, but as we're turning to James 4, just to kind of set everything to where it needs to be,

Jesus has lived a life perfectly obeying the law, meriting righteousness.

Remember when you do the right thing, that's called righteousness, and you do the right thing when you obey the law.

And so Jesus is meriting righteousness, not for himself because he was already righteous, but he came to do it for our sakes, on our behalf, because we need to keep the law of God as creatures, as created beings.

And then Jesus also on the cross, when he died, he paid for our unrighteousness, breaking the law, and then we got credit for not only his holy life, but also we got credit for his holy life, and in addition to that, he got credit for our sins, even though he never sinned, and then

God raised him from the dead. That's all happened on earth, and then James writes about 15 years later in light of that event, and so we've kind of almost called this series

Living in Light of the Risen Savior. There are many laws in this book, and not a whole lot about the

Lord Jesus, even though he is mentioned, but the writer, James' half -brother, assumes that you know this because it's all happened.

It's been around the world told what Jesus has done. And so we as Christians, when we come and deal with this section on pride and humility, have to make sure it's framed properly.

Now quickly, to review, if I ask you, what did we find out in James chapter 1, hopefully you'd say, it seems like two sections, how to live in light of trials, differently than we did when we were an unbeliever, how do

Christians live in a trial -filled world? I think they counted all joy, why? Because we serve the risen savior.

He's conquered death and sin, and he's sovereign over evil. How do you respond to the word? Well, you could ask yourself the question, before you were a

Christian, how did you respond to the word? Probably like certain verses, but you didn't like other verses, and now we as Christians in light of who

Jesus is, the incarnate word, we want to receive the word written. Chapter 2 is interesting because we compare ourselves to other people often, but the first section in chapter 2, don't compare yourselves to other people in light of the glory of who

Jesus is. And we would all be on our face before the Lord like Isaiah was in Isaiah 6.

How could we be looking at someone else thinking we're better or worse based on what they look like or what they wear?

Then James chapter 3, while your ESV probably or NAS shows two sections, it really is one section.

It's about the tongue. How do we talk? And we want to talk in a manner commensurate with our calling.

We want to walk in a manner worthy. We want to talk differently than we did before we were Christians, not to get to heaven, but because we get to go to heaven.

We want to live lives of gratitude and speak well. And so that's the first 12 verses of chapter 3.

And then instead of wisdom being all talk, it shows itself by conduct.

And now we come to James chapter 4. Three sections that will show forth pride.

Verses 1 through 10 is section 1. Verses 11 and 12 is section 2.

And verses 13 through 17 is section 3. Left to ourselves, we would recognize we're all prideful people, so we all need this message.

This is not one of those messages where you want to elbow your wife or your husband or your kid. Oh, this is so needed for them.

Well, it is needed for them, but it's needed for us as well because we have hearts that are not perfect yet, right?

We've been... Somebody up in the balcony elbowing spouses? I see that. As well as you can see me,

I can see you. The world is all about self. Our sinful flesh, even though redeemed, is often about self.

And so James wants us not to live a life of pride and centered on self and talking poorly about people and planning the future like there's no

God. I look up in the dictionary. These are all in the dictionary. Self -centered, self -seeking, self -love, self -importance, self -satisfaction, selfish, self -will, self -portraits, self -help, self -conscious, self -assured, self -realization, self -reliant, self -righteous, self -expression.

And really we know it's all self -deception because we are called to deny self, right?

So I know you, dear Christian, want to live a life that honors the Lord. How do we do that when it comes to pride and humility?

For some, you might be thinking, you know what? But I do struggle with pride. How could I call myself a Christian?

I do speak evil of people. How could I call myself a Christian? I sometimes plan like God's not there. How could

I call myself a Christian? Listen to what the Heidelberg Catechism says. Can those who are converted to God keep these commandments perfectly?

Answer, no. But even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience.

Yet so, that with earnest purpose, they begin to live not only according to some, but according to all the commandments of God.

In other words, we're not looking for perfection. We're not looking for maturation all the time.

We're looking for a desire, a purpose, a goal for living for the

Lord. After all, Jesus has forgiven all of our sins.

Colossians 2 says, you are dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh.

God made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

So since you, I can put it this way, since you never have to pay for pride, for sin of pride in terms of ultimate judgment, while you may be chastised for pride, you never have to pay for it, how do you live?

Answer, I don't want to live a prideful life. So three sections today in James 4, showing forth pride in not only our passions, verses 1 -10, our speaking in verses 11 -12, and our view of the future in verses 13 -17.

Prideful passions, section 1, prideful speaking, section 2, a prideful view of the future, section 3.

I feel like I want to get in a three point stance. We have a lot of verses to cover. But it's all about pride and you can get a little hint of that even in verse 6.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Verse 10, humble yourselves before the

Lord and he will exalt you. Everything about this is Christians living in light of the risen

Savior should live humble lives. You can think of even Micah chapter 6, we want to live humbly.

So section number 1, I could entitle it worldliness or prideful passions, verses 1 -10.

It seems like there's a big huge chapter break there but one thought leads to another.

He says in verses 1 -2, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Good questions by James the preacher.

Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire, you don't have.

Rapid fire here, so you murder. You covet, you can't obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

You do not have because you do not ask. And so he starts talking about fighting and quarreling and everything else.

It leads itself from 3 .18. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

And so we move from peaceful contact within church to a bunch of fighting.

And he asks that diagnostic question, what causes this? He's not saying how do you stop it but what are the symptoms below the surface that make all these things happen?

And people fighting. Can you imagine? This is within the church.

Fighting and wars. What causes that? What's the root?

The answer is in verse 2. You desire and do not have.

That's where we get the word hedonism. And that's how it's directly related to pride.

Hedonism is all about self. It's not about glorifying God. What's the chief end of man? To enjoy

God and glorify Him forever. What's the chief end of man not thinking in light of the cross?

I've got to just have as many pleasures as possible. It's hedonism. It is club med mentality.

And when you have a club med mentality, guess what? Everybody who's in your way of your pleasures and your enjoyments is an enemy.

And so you fight with them and you quarrel with them and there's conflict because they are getting in your way of enjoyment.

Lawsuits and rivalries and factions and controversies. It's like the dad who sees a bunch of kids in the backyard fighting.

Call the kids in. What are you doing? Playing church. Galatians 5.

You bite and devour one another. The language of it all. Some churches have something called the passing of the peace.

Who's been in a church? Passing of the peace. It's kind of like greeting time except it's purposeful.

And so the passing of the peace, you go to people and shake their hand and say, Peace be with you. And they say,

Peace be with you. And it's intended not to be formalized. It's just something you say. Hello, hello.

How are you? How are you? But you go find somebody that you're kind of off kilter with a little bit.

And there's a little rub between you and that person. And so you find them out before the worship service. It's a passing of peace.

And you say, Peace be with you. And they say, Peace be with you. It's fine. Everything's going to be okay.

When you're prideful, it manifests itself with trouble and quarrels.

In the church, at home, husband, wives, friends, co -workers. James has asked these questions.

Is it not the source of your pleasures? Verse 1. I might have said hedonism was in verse 2.

It's in verse 1. Is it not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members? Well, you don't understand.

It's the system that makes me do it. It's the man that makes me do it. It's my social status that makes me do it.

It's my environment that makes me do it. No, no. He gets right down to the solution here. Because the desire and the root is all on the inside.

And it wages war. This is not humility. I just love the way he talks.

It's like a fully automatic machine gun. Verse 2. You desire, you don't have, so you murder.

You covet, you can't obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You don't have because you don't ask. I mean, why ask for anything from the

Lord when it's all about you anyway? When it's all about me? Probably not literal murder.

But hatred in the heart is just like murder. Jesus said, I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.

And whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court. And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Verse 3. You see where the motives are? You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

It's all about me. And it's all about my pride. And it's all focused around myself, the unholy trinity, me, myself, and I.

So then when I want to pray for things, it's an extension of what I want. Because I want to spend it on my passions.

Daniel Doriani said, our pursuit of selfish desires becomes so severe that we find we cannot bring ourselves to pray about them.

Unless it's just gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. It's like prodigal son stuff.

Spending it on your pleasures. Squandering it, literally, on your pleasures.

One commentator said, like pampered, spoiled children, we whine to God for things that would harm rather than help us.

And out of love to us, He cannot give the answer to such prayers. D .L.

Moody said, God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves. And the whole time we could be asking in the name of the

Lord for all kinds of things to glorify Him. And He would grant them. 1 John 5, and this is the confidence we have before Him.

That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And I almost want to kind of duck after the first three verses, but you've seen nothing yet.

Verse 4. The castigation here of this preacher. Verse 4.

You adulterous people. In preaching mode it would be. You adulterous people.

Do you not know, I mean you should know, that friendship with the world is enmity with God.

Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. You know what's going on with prophet -like denunciation.

James says, remember Israel? She was like the bride and the triune

God was like the husband. And when she went off to worship other gods, it was like adultery.

It wasn't fornication, it was adultery. And so too, Jesus is the head of the church and the bride is the church and He's the head.

And all of a sudden you're like, you know what, I'll follow the world. And this is not literal adultery where people were running around and committing it.

This is the worship of someone along with or beside the

Lord Jesus. It reminds me of Isaiah when he bluntly said,

But you come here as you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes.

Behind your doors and your doorposts you have put your pagan symbols. Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide.

And so he's saying, you know what, when you start to have friendship with the world, it's like spiritual adultery. Jeremiah said, but like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me,

O house of Israel. I don't want to do this. I mean, I know

I do, but I don't want to because I can feel the sting of this rebuke. My mother used to say,

Mike, if you keep doing that... No, no, let me rephrase that to be technical. Michael, if you keep doing that,

I'm going to blister you. Can we talk that way these days? And I didn't say to her metaphorically.

He wants to jar his readers and us into thinking, you know what? This whole time, if we're not thinking rightly, everything revolves around us.

And it's just simple pride. Don't do that. Jesus said an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign.

And yet no sign shall be given it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet. And we all know this.

Do you not know? Of course we know. Now at the risk of somebody here thinking, worldliness is,

I don't play cards, the devil's deck. I don't drink alcohol. I don't smoke cigarettes. I don't dance.

I don't do this. This is not what he's thinking about when it comes to worldliness, you know. Don't taste, don't touch.

That's not what he's after. He's talking about imbibing the system of the world and its values and its thought processes and what it finds important and what it's selling.

God brooks no rivals and he wants attention on him. The ruler of this world, Satan, is selling something you ought not to buy.

The love of the world nor the things in the world we shouldn't love. If anyone loves the world, the love of the

Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, 1 John 2, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the

Father but it is from the world. That's worldliness. The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, boastful pride of life.

The world's passing away, it's lust, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. Well, you know what?

I'm kind of going to straddle the fence a little bit. No, look at the end of verse 4. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of God...

By the way, Abraham was just called a friend of God in chapter 2. You want to be a friend of the world and snuggle up to it?

You make yourself, on purpose, an enemy of God. And we as Christians, we don't want to do that.

We want to run from that. Yeah, but is this biblical?

Verse 5. What's the chapter and verse, James? Now, I'm going to read verse 5 in the

ESV. And it's similar to the NES. I'd say 98 % of the time, or whatever a high number is,

ESV is a good translation, they nail it. Here's one of those exceptions.

You're going to have to spend some time, maybe on your own, looking at all the different views. But let me read the

ESV and then tell you why I think it's wrong. And then I'll tell you why I think the NIV is right.

Who here has the NIV? While we look down on you most weeks, today we look up to you.

Just kidding. NIV positive. Actually, the 78 and 84

NIV are fine. If you have a 2011 NIV, I'd suggest you get a different translation.

But let me read the ESV first. But the NIV does a better job. So think about what we're thinking about here, and all this pride, and James' language, and it's very abrupt, and what's going on.

And now ESV says, Do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says?

That part's fine. He's not quoting an exact verse. He's saying, you know what, the tenor of Scripture, everything about Scripture, is teaching about the fall of man, radical corruption, total depravity, total inability.

We are saved from that, but there's a remnant in us, the flesh, and we're not completely void of any kind of sin that deals with it.

Yes, we've been pardoned from sin. The power of sin's been broken. But the presence of sin is still with us until we get to future.

So he's just saying, you know what, Scripture generally teaches this. But now here's what ESV says. He yearns jealously, that is,

God yearns jealously, over the spirit, small s, not necessarily the body of the person, but the inner person, that He has made to dwell in us.

So God has made us body and soul, spirit, probably body, spirit, same thing, body, soul, soul and spirit being the same.

So here, James says, according to ESV and NAS, hey, don't be worldly because He, the jealous

God, wants you to be worshiping Him. That's true.

He is a jealous God. He does want you to worship Him. But let me read to you the NIV. The spirit, small s,

He caused to live in us envies intensely. The spirit

He caused to live in us envies intensely. I think the way you solve this problem is simple.

That word envy is never used of God. God is jealous but He never envies.

We envy and we want what we want and we want it now at the expense of other people.

We quarrel, we fight and everything else. We envy. Envy is always a vice in the

New Testament. It's in Romans 1 list. God never envies or feels envy.

The scripture speaks with a purpose. The original language would be translated this way in Greek, to envy yearns the spirit which dwells in you.

Or if I arrange the words, the spirit which dwells in you yearns to envy. I wish the

NAS and the ESV just would have left it that way. You say, well, is this a big deal?

Well, I don't want you to think that I'm trying to undermine a Bible translation. But remember, this is not the original

Greek. By the way, if you study your Bible and you have a few different translations open, you'd be able to find things like this yourself.

I know many of you do that. So if I read it again, let me put it in context.

At the end of verse 4, therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it's of no purpose that the scripture says?

There is a purpose to scripture. It's not that he's jealously yearning, although it could be true in another verse.

He's jealous. Here, what goes on? The spirit he caused in us wants to envy intensely.

This is just what we do. We ought not to do it. And here's the clincher for why

I know this translation's right. Verse 6 gives a solution. But he gives more grace.

There's a contrast. We are envious and we want to do this left on our own, but he gives more grace.

I solve this problem because of the word envy and of verse 6, but.

But, what's the hope? But he gives more grace. He gives more grace than my prideful propensity to try to want and have and desire and grasp.

He gives more grace. And, of course, he's implying the grace of the Lord Jesus incarnate. You can think of Titus 2 and others.

He just knows we know that, the victory of Jesus from the dead. Therefore, it says, verse 6,

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. There is hope. And so he opposes the proud.

It's like the military is arraying itself against its enemy. That's the word opposition.

If you want to try to be obstinate and full of pride, there's going to be God opposing you.

But he gives grace to the humble. That's why everything in this section's about pride and humility.

God opposes such attitudes that are so unlike his son. And then he gives the solution in verses 7 through 10.

Now, I don't know if you have ever operated a jackhammer. I don't think I ever did.

But just imagine if you want to destroy some concrete and remove it. And you have a jackhammer.

Anybody here operate a jackhammer? I know certain people have. Oh, more than I thought.

Can you rent those at Lowe's? You can. And it's just this, you know, your whole body is like just shaking and reeling with the whole thing.

It's probably good for the chiropractic profession. There's like 10 jackhammer bursts right here that should be our response when we're dealing with pride.

So we all deal with pride. We're all needing humility. We realize that scripture says we have a bent towards this.

And it's not a friendship with God kind of bent. And so we have to kind of think rightly through preaching, through the word of God.

And now he's going to say, for prideful people, this is how you respond. For those dealing with the sin of pride, how do you respond?

And he gives these 10 kind of staccato, rapid fire commands for the proud. And the first one is submit to God.

The proud says, I'm the master of my own ship. I'm the captain of my own destiny. And the prideful person who's repentant says, you know what?

I'm going to submit. Submit means I'm going to put myself under God. I'm going to align myself under God.

I'm going to arrange my life under God. I've been putting myself over, even as a Christian, trying to rear my head up over God.

But now I'm going to say, you know what? I have to bend my will to my superior, the

Lord Jesus. When prideful people do that, how do you think God responds? Humble yourselves.

He gives grace to these kind of people. And again, this is not a person who says, you know what?

I'm going to do these things and get saved. For Christians who struggle with sin and who would like to be back under the good graces, as it were, of the

Father, He gives grace when you respond this way. And by the way, if you're going to put yourself back under the

Lord, somebody's not going to like it. Verse 7b, Satan, the ruler of this world.

Talk about the most prideful being in all the universe. Remember in Ezekiel and Isaiah, I will,

I will, I will, I will, I will. That sounds like what we're doing. So we say,

I'll align myself back under God. That's kind of the first component of repentance. And now it says, resist the devil and he'll flee from you.

This is how we submit to God. We say no to the devil. And by the way, this should make you think of the

Lord Jesus and his temptation. We know that's what happens when you submit to the

Lord and his good plan. And you resist the devil. He flees. He goes on to say, number three, that third jackhammer burst.

Draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. Now, here's what he's saying. It's language of the

Old Testament. It's language of worship. He's saying, listen, God never changes. He's always there.

He's not spatially more near you. But when you sin as a Christian, don't you feel far off from God?

He didn't move. I mean, he's omnipresent. But you feel far away from God when you're sinful and you're prideful.

So he says, well, come back. Draw near to God. I mean, you have a risen savior, a mediator,

Jesus. So come near. Come near to worship. And he'll draw near to you.

It's okay. When children say, Mom and Dad, I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

Well, welcome. This reminds me of Hebrews 4.

Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.

And then he says other things. All language of repentance. All language of humility.

All language of God's gracious work. Cleanse your hands, you sinners.

Purify your hearts, you double -minded. So number four and five, both, you know what? I've sinned with my hands.

I've sinned with my heart. And by the way, when you come close to God and you realize how holy he is, even though he's a good father, you're thinking, you know what?

I better deal with those sins. I want to come with a clean heart, clean hands. Reminds me of Psalm 24.

Purify your hearts, you double -minded. This is all language of the prideful person repenting with humility and going to the

Lord. He goes on, number six, to say, verse nine, be wretched.

Number seven, mourn. Number eight, weep. It's just all language, beloved, on sorrow for sin.

When you're prideful and you confess your sin, you're sorry about it, aren't you? And it's not a sorrow that's just sorrowful like Judas, but it's a sorrow, 2

Corinthians, that leads to repentance. It's logical. I have a pure heart that I want, and I'm coming close to the

Lord, and I'm sorry for my sin. Please forgive me. There's mourning involved.

Doesn't that remind you of the Lord Jesus when he said, blessed are those who mourn and they shall be comforted?

This is all repentance language. Taking sin seriously. I really did sin against you.

This is Psalm 51. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done evil what is in my sight.

There's weeping even over sin. Number nine, it says in verse nine, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

You fall into sin, you commit sin, you're prideful. This is our attitude.

And then he gives a summary statement, and it is such a wonderful one. It comes full circle from verse six.

Verse 10, humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you.

Don't wait for circumstances to humble you. Don't wait for the Lord to humble you. He knows how to do those kind of things.

So when you sin, you just quickly go and say, Lord, forgive me. I'll humble myself. I'm not going to be eternally judged for this.

You may have to discipline me. You may have to spank me as it were. You may have to work on me and mold me, but I will take it because it comes from a loving

Father's hand. And he will what, exalt you?

I thought exaltation was only supposed to be of God. God's the only one who's truly exalted.

And now he says as children, he is going to exalt us. That's amazing.

John Flagle said, they that know God will be humble and they that know themselves cannot be proud. So this first section, the writer

James is saying, when it comes to humility, that should be our goal.

That's just like the Lord Jesus. And when it comes to pride, let's be repentant. Now we move to another section on the same thing of pride.

Verses 1 through 10 was talking about prideful passions. Worldliness.

Now we look at prideful speaking. Let me read verses 11 and 12. Prideful speaking.

This is not fit for Christians. We want to live a life of gratitude. We don't want to do this, but we know what the law does.

It exposes us. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks evil or the one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's only one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and destroy.

But who are you to judge your neighbor? How does pride manifest itself when we talk?

I'm better than you. Therefore, I can say things about you that aren't good. The Greek is to speak down.

The text here says speak evil, but it's literally down speaking. It's condescendingly speaking.

It's speaking like I'm up here and you're down here. And there's this gap of difference between how great

I am and how you're not great. In this section here, judge, judge, judge, judge in different forms, maybe seven times in English.

Stop putting people down is the point. Christians aren't supposed to talk this way. It's almost like a refrain from last week, is it not?

Well, you know what? It's not slander in the court of law if it's true. Don't speak evil of people.

Defamation, slander, criticism, judgmental attitudes, quarreling, bickering, exaggeration of false that are real, false accusations.

James says this is not how Christians live. And why is it, dear Christian? I preach this to my own heart as well.

Why is it so much easier to jump to negative conclusions about people than to assume the best?

Husbands, wives, friends, people in the church. We're brothers.

Do you see in verse 11? Why should I not do this fault fighting? Here's a reason. You're brethren. Verse 11.

Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges a brother. I have a brother and a sister.

And I don't want to speak ill of them. Some of you would probably even say this, and I know how true it is, that you have

Christians that are closer to you than some of your blood relatives. Right? It's the family of God.

You have more in common with Christians than you do your own family. So then what you have in common with those

Christians, you still speak evil? He says don't do that. It gives another reason.

You judge the law itself. See it? He speaks against the law and judges the law. I thought

I'm supposed to do the law and fulfill the law. Chapter 2. There's a royal law. Love your neighbor as your what?

Self. But you know what? I don't like that law. I'm above the law. So I do what I want, and I judge the law, and I'm over God's law.

Ooh. Like, well, you know what? It's not that big a deal.

I'm just talking about somebody's character. You're judging the law. I don't want to do this.

My job is to be a doer of the word. James 1 .22. There's another reason.

There's a lawgiver, and his name's God. Verse 12. There's only one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and destroy.

But who are you to judge your neighbor? The Lord is the judge, Isaiah 33.

God is a sovereign, powerful one. As a matter of fact, I'm not even capable to judge.

That's another reason not to do fault finding with people. Verse 12. Who are you to judge your neighbor?

Answer? We're nobody's. Pride with a capital

P. I judge. I have a law that's above God's law. God can save and destroy, but I'll tell you what

I want to do. This is especially important when we have to think about what wives say about husbands, what wives say about husbands in front of the kids, how husbands talk to wives, how husbands talk to wives in front of kids, how husbands and wives talk to kids, how you talk about your boss.

I'm telling you what, all you have to do is be around unbelievers for a little while, and they slam their spouses, slam their kids, slam their bosses, slam their government.

But since we're Christians, we ought not to talk. And then the last section.

He's talked about prideful passions in the first ten verses. He's talked about prideful speaking in verses 11 and 12.

And now we have a prideful view of the future, verses 13 through 17. Most of you know this passage very well.

I'll just make a couple points about it. God does not want you to be self -sufficient. That's prideful.

He wants you to be dependent on him. He's the one that controls the future. How many people predicted all the events that happened in 2020, by the way?

Who could have thought? We are to live in recognition of God.

Live life, plan life like there's a God who can change, cut, paste, stop, kill, whatever he wants to do.

Commentator Luck said, One of the greatest sins of our modern day is simply leaving God out of our lives. We talk and plan and act as if our lives were entirely our own affair.

This is practical atheism. And might I add, it's pride. Come now, listen to James in verse 13.

I mean, it's just, come now, you who say. I mean, hey, hey, don't say this.

Hey, you that like to say this. And by the way, the Greek tense is you say it all the time. Got your

Blackberry, your Palm Pilot, your iPhone, your... What's the non -iPhone brand of phone?

Android. I think we should start separating that in the church. Mass, no mass.

Android, Apple. Flip phone people are all laughing.

I'm just going to keep planning. I got everything planned. Here's how my plan is. Today or tomorrow. I got the time frame.

We'll go to such and such a town. I know exactly where I'm going on the map. I know how long I'm going to be there. Spend a year there.

Trade, make a profit. You know what? Everything's going to go well. I'm not going to go belly up. I'm not going to lose my money. I know exactly where I'm going to go.

I'll be there as long as I want to go. I have a capacity in my own heart to execute all my plans.

And he said, hey, you ought to wake up. That's what come now, you who say is. Come now, you who say.

You better listen. That's the wrong way to do it. I mean, is it a sin to plan?

No. Is it a sin to plan without being under the auspices and the umbrella of a sovereign

God who does whatever He pleases? Yes. It's pride to say, this is my life.

I've got it all figured out. I'll take God for granted. Thanks for saving me, by the way. I'll live my life as I want to now.

Busy, busy, busy with good things. Needed things. But without the

Lord. What did Jesus say? This sounds just like it. The land of a certain man was rich and very productive.

He began raising it into himself. What should I do since I have no place to store my crops? This is what

I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come.

Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, you fool.

This very night your soul is required of you. And now who will own what you have prepared? So the man who lays up treasure for himself is not rich toward God.

And to push this a little bit, what does James say in verse 14? Our life is unpredictable.

Our life is short. Our life is like a vapor. You do not know. You think you know a lot.

I'm going to go to such and such a city. I know this. I know this. I know this. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life? Full stop. For you are a mist that appears for a little while or a little time and then vanishes.

When my kids were little and we went to the dollar store, we'd get the dollar like bubble soap.

And then you had the little stick that went in there and had two sides, a bigger hole and a smaller hole. You kind of make bubbles, right?

Have you ever been to those fairs where instead of like a little tiny hole that big, they've got those deals this big and they set it down in.

And all of a sudden they go like this and the bubble is huge. And the thing just kind of sets.

And it just kind of floats by and you're admiring it. And you can see kind of little rainbow things in there and different colors.

And then if you're close enough, it pops and you get soap in your eyes is what you get. This is

Ecclesiastes language. Your life is like this. Some of us as older people know that.

60, where'd the time go? 70, where'd the time go? 80, where'd the time go?

90, where'd the time go? We don't know. We've had deaths in our church family in the last year, accidents.

There's been viruses. There's been upheaval. We're frail people.

So how do we plan? We don't know all the details of the future, but the

Lord knows. Proverbs 27, do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

One day we're going to die and then what? When we were kids or when

I had kids rather, we'd do fun things with the kids. We'd take them to the ocean to surf and we'd take them to the mountain to ski.

We'd also take them to every old cemetery we could find. Maddie'd be four years old and I'd see some

Abigail Smith, 1882 -1892, and I'd say,

Maddie, how old was little Abigail when she died? And she'd say, four, because we need to be ready.

It's prideful to think we're going to live to be 85 and retire and all these other things.

You say, well, then what should I do, Pastor? Verse 15, Pastor James answers, Instead you ought to say,

If the Lord, Sovereign, Master, curry us, if He wills, we will live and do this or that.

Planning's fine. But presumptuous planning without the Lord makes us think we're the captain of our own ships and we don't depend on Him at all.

Remember Jesus in the garden, on the way to Calvary, Your will be done.

It's good to make plans, but it's good to say, Lord willing. People used to sign,

I don't know if it was Bach or somebody used to sign, I don't know, maybe SDG. Someone would sign their letters, DV, Dio Valente, God willing.

But here it's not just generic God willing, it's what? Lord willing, curry us willing. This is our motto.

Humbly planning before the Lord, who works all things after the counsel of His will,

Ephesians 1. Paul said, I will return to you again if God's will, and if God wills,

He sets sail for Ephesus. And this we shall do,

Hebrews 6, if God permits. And you know, he goes on to say in verse 16, if you don't want to be dependent, here's the tie -in to pride again.

Boasting and arrogance, anything but humility. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Failing to include God and recognizing Him as the sovereign. So we end it in verse 17.

This verse has a context, by the way. Don't pull this verse out of the context. What's the context? Living a life not considering God.

So, whoever knows the right thing to do, acknowledge God in your plans. And fails to do it, don't acknowledge

God in the plans. For Him it is sin. Now that might be a principle for other things, but the context is, you ought to do the right thing.

Plan in light of a sovereign God who can change up everything. So James says to Christians, we ought to be the most humble people in the world because we knew what we were like before God saved us, and He saved us anyway.

Three sections for Christian people. A warning against worldliness, a warning against talking down to people, and about people, and a warning about boasting about tomorrow when you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

Micah 6 .8, He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord Yahweh require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk what?

Humbly with your God. When I think of the

Lord Jesus and just watching these three sections, if there ever was somebody who wasn't worldly, it was our

Savior, the Lord Jesus. If there was ever someone who never spoke a sinful word against anyone else, it was our

Lord Jesus. And if there was anyone who said, I'm going to live a life in light of my

Father and His plans, and Lord, if you will, it's our Lord Jesus.

Bow with me, please. Thank you, Father, for our time in your word. We confess,

I confess, I confess, I'm too prideful. I'm not humble enough.

And it's shown by my own hedonism, by the way I talk about people, and the way

I plan. And I'm sure it's true for these dear people. Thank you will never have to pay for any of this pride.

Jesus paid for it on the cross. He said it is finished. But because of that, would you help us?

We want to honor you with gratitude and thanksgiving, and we don't want to act like we were before we were saved.

So, Father, may you help us this week. Be quick to submit, quick to resist the devil, and draw near to you.

We pray this in Jesus' name. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.