James 3:1-18
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Every book has a table of contents even the bible
If I said we are in Nahum this morning i promise we would all find that table of contents real fast
The small book of James has its own table of contents
Chapter one ends with it
If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James says that you can tell if someone’s faith is real by how they talk, how they treat people who don’t have much, and how they interact with the world.
James is about challenging us to consider our hearts if we have a simple profession of faith or a possession of it
For us do we have a cultural get out of hell free card Jesus or are we followers of our savior every day of our lives
The book of James tells us that our words are really important.
If we can control what we say, we can control a lot of other things in our life too.
And we are going to see no one talks to us more then ourselves
And that ongoing conversation in our hearts drives everything we do
From the table of contents he is about to dive headfirst as James does to relentlessly challenge us
We are going to see 2 things in chapter 3 today
The power of words and what is at the heart
The Power of Words
The Power of Words
Not many should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we will receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is mature, able also to control the whole body. Now if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we direct their whole bodies. And consider ships: Though very large and driven by fierce winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So too, though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts great things. Consider how a small fire sets ablaze a large forest. And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. Every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish is tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.
3:1 in a nutshell- don’t throw off the training wheels before you learn the basics…but as you learn the basics you are responsible to use them
One commentator said: undoubtedly he intended it to score a bull’s-eye when he said it. For even today it is not unknown for those who have only recently committed their lives to Christ to be pushed into making some sort of public declaration of their faith long before they have either the basic knowledge or the proper development of Christian character for it.
Paul said the same thing
He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as the devil.
In seminary i worked in the admissions office
We got calls all the time from aspiring pastors
Some of them kids looking to come to the college
Some of them guys my age looking for a masters degree
And we always asked questions about how they got to that point
Many were young and hadn’t experienced much life yet
Some were psycho paths and wanted to know if we had a mega church pastor track
Boom rejected
But for all of us the route was the same
Learn the fundamentals and grow for 3-4 years or more
Why?
Because what all of us say matters
Hope and wholeness or brokenness and no hope rests in the balance of what all of us say
Not just teachers
The main bullseye James is hitting us all with comes from Luke 12:48
But the one who did not know and did what deserved punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected.
This idea from Luke 12:48 means that people who have been blessed with a lot – a good church, loving parents, a nice home, good education, a successful career, money – are expected to be humble and use their blessings well.
That is what judgement means
It means you are responsible for how you use it
It is a different word then what Paul used and James would have known it
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,
James is not talking about what the Gospel does with our status as forgiven before God
He is talking about the principle from Luke - everytime we open our mouth we are given a responsibility that has weight
Parenting showed this to me
Nothing my sons could ever do changes that they are my boys
Nothing can change our standing before God as His kids he pours out all he is for
But when a fight breaks out I look to Beau first he is the oldest
at 7 he knows better then Baker as a 2 year old
That is what James is saying it is like with our words the more we know the Gospel
It matters
Words are powerful
This matters for me in what I do but it matters for all of us
For me it is why we move slow through books of the bible
I am responsible for what I teach here and I carry that weight deeply
To preach something other than what Christ Jesus has given in His Word is to burn down the faith of God’s people. It is to torch the Church.
Maybe you are here because you walked away from church because of abusive leaders
You may have been hurt and lost trust when a pastor misused funds or was more interested in celebrity
if they are truly a christian they don’t get away with it
It will come to light
I am glad you are here to hopefully experience something different
It is why we do things the way we do here
I work hard to be a different
But it matters for you too
To teach the people around us another way to wholeness found in crowning him king is to lead them to what can never satisfy and will burn down there life
And the tongue is a fire. The tongue, a world of unrighteousness, is placed among our members. It stains the whole body, sets the course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
Look at what it changes…he says the course of life
Nothing is beyond its impact
We can send people in directions that don’t lead to wholeness and hope
the image of the burned down forest, show the result of our words that either lead to life or damage to others.
To those who have been given much, much is expected in the course to hope and wholeness we offer to the people around us
I know better then some of the bad advice I have been given
In the midst of suffering we have been told “Everything happens for a reason”
then we are left wondering what on earth could the reason be for this?
Maybe the reason is me? Maybe God is too weak? Maybe people are bigger then Him?
I have learned a better hope
I have learned sin may take but it doesn’t get the last word
My pain has an expiration date
I have learned that one day everything sad will come untrue and be better for having once been broken
I have learned I have a savior who purchased that day with His life and because I am His it is sure
So when i enter into the suffering of others what do I offer
Words that lead to hope and victory?
Or words like I have been told that lead to self hate and doubt in God
I will be held accountable for the course i set people on
James 3:8 is the bad news and in it lies the amazing Gospel
No one can do this?
James does not simply say that the tongue is untameable, but that it cannot be subdued by any power resident in mere human nature or possessed by a mere human being
Sweet huh
But that is what the Gospel is for
As we saw in Mark if we admit we are busted up and need someone to do what we can’t we are right were God wants us
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
We are in need of a savior
We need a new heart
And that is the Gospel
That is the promise from the Old Testament that we would have in the Gospel of Ephesians 2
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
“Our greatest need is not to try harder. Our greatest need is a new heart.”
David Platt said Christianity does not begin with our pursuit of Christ, but with Christ’s pursuit of us. Christianity does not start with an invitation we offer to Jesus, but with an invitation Jesus offers to us
In the Gospel we are given much more then we can imagine
It should stir up humility that God would do such a scandalous thing to save us when on our own we would never choose Him
That is what James is a shining a light on
And we owe that Gospel to everyone we talk too
And deep down we need to speak it to ourselves everyday
So that it gets deep into our heart
What Is At the Heart
What Is At the Heart
Who among you is wise and understanding? By his good conduct he should show that his works are done in the gentleness that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
James draws a line between just saying you believe and really having faith.
Do you like the idea of the Gospel and still try to follow some rules or has your heart been changed
The tongue is something of a spiritual barometer: it shows us what is really going on inside us.
And it has everything to do with our heart
A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.
James uses something specific to get to the heart of what the Gospel does in us
And it starts with the word he uses in verse 13
he says it is by our good life we show a watching and hurting world the Gospel is the way to what we long for
The Message of James 11. The Two Wisdoms (3:13–18)
Greek has two words which receive the English equivalent ‘good’. One (agathos, e.g. Lk. 18:18) means ‘that which is intrinsically good’, ‘possessing the quality of goodness’. The word James uses, however, is kalos, ‘lovely’, and what he speaks of is the loveliness of goodness, the attractiveness of the good life, its wholesomeness and helpfulness, as seen in the Lord’s people: a way of life whose goodness is plain to all who see
When you live a life that shows the Gospel changes everything a broken world will watch it and some will ask how they can have what you do
One thing i learned early on was how to take any passage and use it to tell a hurting world the good news of the Gospel
I was told to imagine that 20 year old hurting you sitting in the front row…what would he need to hear to stop running and rest in the hope of Jesus
When i give the gospel i have been given i can
And the gospel is all over this passage when we look
Has it changed your heart?
The news as David Platt says changes everything - Doesn’t it take your breath away for a moment to hear God say, “I love you”? To which we, in our sinfulness, must certainly respond, “Why?” And then to hear him answer, “Because you’re my child.” To which we ask the obvious question, “Why would I, a hopeless sinner, now be called your cherished child?” Only to hear him say, “Because I wanted you, and I came to get you so that you might know me as Father
That makes our hearts what James says - 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who cultivate peace.
A heart rooted in the gospel is active
Look at his language …it is actively cultivating and sowing
It is building good and wholeness
If that is you how can that not change the internal dialogue you have in the face of hard days
No one talks to you more then you do
No one is more influential on your life than you are, because no one talks to you more than you do.
the question is what are you saying when the good guys don’t look like they are winning
What are you saying to your own heart when suffering comes?
Paul Tripp said - When the unexpected, the unwanted, the unplanned, the hard and the difficult enters your life, you will always preach some kind of gospel to yourself
are you telling yourself what he calls the nowism of the Gospel
he goes on: We have a pretty clear understanding of the Gospel past, and we have a pretty clear understanding of the Gospel future. But we have a muddy, unclear understanding of the nowisim, the right here, right now, present benefits, present reality of the person and work and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 27 is a great place to see the now ism of the gospel and the words we use with ourselves that will give life or burry us
The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom should I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
whom should I dread?
In the midst of suffering and questions the psalmist talks to himself
words of life and what the gospel is doing right now
Does he say religion is a light maybe a salvation ?
No he says the Lord is His light and His salvation
The Gospel is currently actively the stronghold of his life
What you believe about God and the Gospel today is what will come out when the days get hard
And it will come out in your words to others and most of all yourself
What is the gospel you are speaking to yourself and others?
Are we cultivating the fundamentals so we now the nowism of the gospel when hard days hit?
Do we know what it means for the right now
So that in the hard times we are as James says sowing and cutlivating life even when things are dark
The question for us all to leave with is What does your tongue reveal about your heart?
Do you have a heart shaped by the gospel or do you lead yourself and others on a course to more brokenness
Because of Jesus’ words we can know life in our own words today
Lets Pray
