James 5:13-20 "Take it to the Lord in Prayer"

                Today we bring to a close our series entitled True Faith Works, our series on the epistle of James.  Now, we’ve seen James deal with a lot of very important biblical doctrines and biblical truths during the past few months.  Sometimes it’s hard to believe that there’s so much stuff, so much information crammed into only 5 chapters (only 3 pages in your pew Bibles).  We’ve talked about the relationship of faith and works.  We said that faith produces works and that we are not saved by our works.  We’ve talked about sin and the severity with which we are to treat it.  Sin is no trivial matter.  We talked about how we are to go about fighting sin in this world.  We talked about the complete reliance that we must have upon God to overcome sin in this fight.  We don’t have the power to overcome it, that must come from God and God alone.  Last week, we saw James tell us that we have to be patient.  We saw him tell us that all of this hard work that we are going to be doing isn’t going to be easy and it’s not going to be a short process, but we have to keep going.  Even when we’re tired, even when we’re weak, and even when we wonder if we’re even making a difference, we have to keep going.  Well, now we come to the closing words of James for his Jewish-Christian audience.  Basically (and this is really simplifying it), James’ final words are that we should pray and praise God.  So, he follows up all of this hard work and suffering and patience and endurance with the sweet reminder that we are to pray and praise.

                “Is anyone among you suffering?  Let him pray.  Is anyone cheerful?  Let him sing praise.  Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him…”  In other words, if you’re in trouble then pray.  If you’re in a time of blessing then pray.  If you’re sick (the Greek word literally meaning “weak”) then call the leaders of the church and have them pray with and for you.  Regardless of what your situation or your circumstances in life may be, you ought to be praying.  I often find it funny that many Christians only really pray when things are going poorly.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard stories about people exhausting every possible avenue of help and healing, so they went to God in prayer.  Now, we’ve all heard stories where people came to know Christ in those moments and I’m greatly thankful for them.  Maybe the story of how you came to know Christ happened in a situation like that; praise be to God.  However, I often get a little bit cenacle or upset feeling when I hear those stories.  Now, I’m not trying to say that God ought to not listen to those prayers.  God doesn’t need to be like us.  You know that person that calls you only when something is wrong and you don’t even want to answer it when their name comes up on the caller I.D.  “He must be in trouble now because he’s calling me.”  No, I’m thankful that God isn’t like that; however, I will often say that if someone is constantly in prayer, then maybe they wouldn’t reach the point that they are at when they have nowhere to turn.  When we are constantly engaging ourselves with the things of God through prayer and careful reading and study of His Word, then we are much more likely to stay anchored to Him.  However, bad things will still happen and that’s just the way it is.

                James follows up his charge for constant prayer by saying, “And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.  And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”  Now, one quick word of caution here; James is not saying that praying a particular prayer or having certain people pray and anoint someone with oil will heal everyone.  He’s not even saying that every follower of Christ that prays over the sick will see healing.  Remember, I told you that the word translated as “sick” actually means “weak” in the original Greek.  Well, there is a great deal of difference between sickness and weakness.  And this weakness that is in mind is a complete lack of strength, almost like that of being completely wiped out due to dehydration, starvation, or illness.  It’s really an inability to do anything.  Recently, Amy and I attended a funeral service for a distant family member of hers.  This guy was a devoted and devout Christian, but he had more health problems than all five members of my family put together.  He had been in bad health for as long as Amy has been alive; he had had heart issues for well over 30 years with his first heart surgery being in 1981.  And as if that wasn’t enough, he had even had several accidents while working his land involving large metal gates and massive tractors.  He couldn’t wear pants that fit him because they irritated the scars that he had as a result of so many surgeries.  Now, he was a faithful man, but God never healed him of his infirmities.  The Apostle Paul was never healed of his infirmities.  Paul very famously speaks in 2 Corinthians of his “thorn in the flesh” which is often seen as a physical injury.  However, in both the case of Paul and this man who had been in poor health, Mr. Cooley, God overcame their weaknesses and gave them strength.  He gave them strength to run the race that was before them to use more Pauline language.  You see, it isn’t about necessarily being healed of all physical infirmities (although God certainly has the power to do that), but about overcoming whatever your limitations may be and serving and honoring God.  That’s the healing that James has in mind here that we are to pray for.  Overcoming physical and spiritual maladies and being able to praise God through it all.  Overcoming the fallenness of this world and the way in which we are seen as the bad guys.  Overcoming the trials and hardships and continuing to strive forward for the kingdom and for the sake of Christ’s righteousness, that’s the true healing that is found in Christ.

                What we find next is a Biblical (Old Testament) example of a faithful prayer.  I don’t really use the term prayer warrior much, but if I did, then I would definitely classify Elijah as the Lieutenant General of that Army (with Christ rightly being the General).  James gives the story that we find in 1 Kings at the beginning of 17 and end of 18 about Elijah’s faithful prayers being answered and a 3½ year drought coming about and ending when he changed his prayers to be for rain instead of against it.  Now, one little thing that I want to point out here is that we might take the wrong impression from these words.  Now, this isn’t an issue with James, but an issue with us, that we might misunderstand what James is referencing here if we don’t properly or correctly understand what happened with Elijah and this drought.  You see, Elijah did pray for this drought, but it was also a vision given to him as well.  Before the drought ever began, we find these words in 1 Kings 17, “Now Elijah the Tishbite…said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.’  And the word of the Lord came to him:  ‘Depart from here and turn eastward…’”  Then God continues to give Elijah instructions as to how he should proceed.  The point of the matter is that God was using this drought to accomplish His purposes.  The will of God could be accomplished by this drought and so He consented to the petition made by Elijah.  God’s glory and power was shown through this drought.  Had Elijah’s prayer been outside of the sovereign will of the Father, then it would not have happened.  Some of y’all looked a few weeks ago at that petition in the Lord’s Prayer that says, “Thy will be done” or “God’s will be done.”  We have to understand that sometimes God’s will isn’t to heal everyone; it isn’t always God’s will to save every person.  I’m sure that there were those who looked to God during that drought and wondered why He wouldn’t cause it to rain.  The family member that I referenced earlier, Mr. Cooley, might not have been as devout of a Christian as he was had he been healed of all of his physical ailments.  Much of his faith came from his experience of going through life and dealing with his infirmities.  You might could say that his scars were what lead him to Christ.

                Now, the final words of James’ epistle almost seem to begin a new concept.  However, I want to read these words to you and then tell you why it is just a re-emphasizing of several of the themes that James has already introduced.  James says, “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”  Now, upon first reading this, we might be tempted to get the impression that one sure-fire way to gain eternal life is to find someone who is living in sin, apart from God, and to lead them to a saving faith.  However, we know that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, and we know that because Jesus himself tells us that in John 14:6.  So, what do these final two verses mean?  Well, first off just because some of these folks are wandering from the truth doesn’t mean that they were ever even in the truth.  We know that once God claims us as His own, that we may stray, but we will never fall away.  However, just because we are members of a local church and part of a congregation, that doesn’t necessarily indicate membership in the invisible church.  Secondly, when James says that “someone” may bring him back, he is opening up the responsibilities of the community (i.e. the Christian community of the church), to all members and not just the leaders.  He’s letting us know that it isn’t about your place within the church, but about your place within Christ.  If you are a Christian, then you have a responsibility to seek out the lost.  It’s isn’t just the job of the pastor or the Elders to seek the lost, but it is the responsibility of the entirety of the church.

                So, the question still remains about what to make of this “save his soul from death” talk.  Well, let’s come full-circle shall we?  As I mentioned earlier, the epistle of James begins (in fact it really is the first half of the epistle) by really dealing with the notion of faith and works.  True saving faith produces good works.  Well, would you classify leading someone who is lost and wandering back into the fold of God as a good work?  I certainly would.  Well, working from James’ logic that he’s presented earlier, what must that “someone” who brings him back possess before carrying out this good work?  He must have a real, right, and saving faith.  As we’ve said, good works are indicators of true saving faith.  Well, being able to do the good work of leading others to a real faith is an indicator itself of a true saving faith, and that true saving faith is found in none other than Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  It is because of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection that this covering of a multitude of sins takes place.  It’s not because of the work of the person, but because of the work of Jesus that we find salvation, forgiveness, and reconciliation between ourselves and the Father.

                James is telling us here that basically everything that we have is because of Jesus.  We can seek out the lost because of the faith that is in us because of Christ.  We can be healed of, or overcome, all of our physical and spiritual afflictions because of Christ.  We can pray, cry out to God our Father in heaven knowing that He will hear us because of the work of Jesus Christ.  It is because of Christ that we have any standing with God that is not condemnation.  It is by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that we have hope for our salvation.  Friends, everything that you have and everything that you claim as your own is because of Jesus Christ.  Yes, you have worked hard and made good decisions, but it is because of the sovereignty, providence, grace, and mercy of God shown and given to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ that we can enjoy them.  Let us continue to praise God, and thank him for giving us His one and only Son.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

James 5:7-12 "Patience is a Virtue...and a Discipline"

                It’s good to be back in the pulpit today after taking a week and spending some time with my family and not worrying about the stressors of life.  We had a good week spent with my family in Orange Beach, and Amy and I found it particularly refreshing to have built-in babysitters for a few days so that the kids weren’t completely our responsibility.  Now, that all came back to bite us when the what-should-have-been 5 hour trip home turned into about 8 hours due to traffic issues and we had to deal with three sleep-deprived kids in a car that wasn’t moving.  However, the time away was good for us and was refreshing.  And I even followed that up by letting Amy sleep almost every day this week, which she rarely gets to do, instead of waking her up.  Well, I’m going to throw all of that away today by poking fun at her.  You see, my wife hates the concept of working out or exercising more than you can possibly imagine.  Oh, she does it, but she just can’t stand it, primarily because there is no instant result (other than pain and sweat).  She also hates when things that should take a certain amount of time end up taking much longer than they should (like a car ride home from vacation).  Now, I will readily admit that I don’t have much room to talk in the field of lacking patience, but my wife puts me to shame.  However, I will give her credit and say that this lack of patience is due in large part to the efficiency at which she operates, and that she has inherited that trait from multiple members of her family, generations even.

                Now, of course, I’m speaking about patience in an earthly sense.  However, patience in a spiritual sense, as a spiritual discipline, is a different animal.  I think that the spiritual discipline of patience is an often overlooked and misunderstood aspect of the Christian faith.  Now, I know that we missed a week last week and that it’s been a little bit since we started this look at James entitled True Faith Works, so let me remind you what we’ve looked at thus far.  We’ve seen James talk about faith, true saving faith, being one that produces good works.  He’s not promoting salvation by works, but saying that a faith that leads to salvation also leads to the production and exhibiting of good works.  It’s the C.S. Lewis quote about faith and works being opposite blades on a pair of scissors that we’ve repeated throughout, neither one being of any real use without the other.  Then, James took some time in the middle of his epistle to deal with the concept of sin.  Now, an important part of our faith is learning to recognize true sin for what it is instead of just brushing it off as human nature.  We have to realize that human nature, as it exists naturally within us, is a road that leads only to condemnation.  We cannot allow ourselves to be motivated and led by the things of this world, but must instead be completely driven by God and our desire to be obedient to His will.  And finally, we saw a few weeks ago that we have to completely acknowledge that it is up to Him.  By that, I mean that we don’t have the power to do anything good, and that we bring nothing of real salvific value to the table.  We ended a few weeks ago with James reminding us about using our gifts and blessings for building up the kingdom instead of destroying it.  Well, before giving his closing remarks to this epistle, James has some words of advice or caution or warning for us about what we must do:  we must be patient.

                “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient until it receives the early and late rains.  You also be patient.  Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”  One of the most difficult things that we are asked/commanded to do as Christians is to be patient.  Waiting, something that seems so simple and easy, is one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish.  You heard last Sunday about a world that seems to be growing less and less inclined to being accepting of the Christian faith.  We see on the news constantly that Christians are being painted as closed-minded, racists, and bigots.  Many people will tell you that the most hate-filled folks they know are the Christians that they have encountered.  We seem to have a real problem (or at least we’re heading in that direction) when it comes to being Christians, biblically-sound Christians, in today’s world without being labeled as someone who spews only hate.  The only Christians who seem to be accepted in today’s world are those who are willing to let things like biblical inerrancy, the sinlessness of Christ, or orthodoxy fall by the wayside.  People ask me all the time what I think we need to do about the growing trend that seems to want to mute (if not destroy) the Christian faith.  My response is simple really.  I tell them to remember the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, and to be patient.  Now, I will admit that all of that is easier said than done.  However, if we truly believe the words of Scripture, all the words of Scripture, then we know how it’s going to turn out.  We know from the book of Revelation that Jesus ultimately wins don’t we?  Well, then let’s actually started acting like we believe those words to be true.

                Now, a word of caution or clarification that I need to give here about what being patient actually does and doesn’t mean.  Notice that in my answer that I said that I give to people about what we are to do, I gave you the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.  Both of these texts are direct instructions given by Jesus to his disciples during his earthly ministry.  Both of them also involve doing something, they involve action.  Being patient in the biblical sense doesn’t mean just sitting around and waiting for something to take place.  That’s why James gives the analogy of a farmer.  Farmers don’t just sit around and wait for crops to grow.  No, they spend hours and hours and days and weeks and months working the soil, watering crops, pulling weeds, and caring for the crops before they harvest them.  If a farmer were to just simply spread some seed and wait for something to happen then he would be sadly disappointed.  Nothing is ever accomplished by just sitting back and doing absolutely nothing, we have to always be working towards something.  James is simply calling us to be patient about the results.  Things don’t always happen as quickly as we would like for them to happen.  Just because you eat healthy and exercise for one week doesn’t mean that your pants are going to start fitting better.  Just because you’ve started reading your Bible every morning for a few months doesn’t mean that you understand and can remember all of Scripture.  Just because you’ve given something a little effort doesn’t mean that you’re seeing all that you’re going to see.  The words of advice from James here are in essence to just keep giving it more time, but also more effort. 

                To drive home his point, James gives the Old Testament examples of the prophets and Job to this Jewish-Christian audience.  Remember, James was writing originally to a group of Christians who had grown up in various amounts being Jewish and adhering to their religious tradition that largely worked off of a works/righteousness system.  He reminded them that many of the prophets of the Old Testament were constantly ridiculed and looked down upon.  Many of them had long since passed away (some being killed) by the time the heart of their messages came to fruition in the form of Jesus Christ.  Now, of course, there were some of their messages about contemporary things that came about, like Jonah’s sparing of Nineveh, but for the most part, the prophets spoke largely of future events.  Many of these events so far into the future that they never saw any of their prophecies (at least these “larger” ones) come to fruition.  However, that didn’t stop them from continuously proclaiming the messages that God commanded them to deliver to His people.  Also, remember the person of Job.  A man who had everything and lost it all, but continued to praise God throughout it all despite receiving constant encouragement from his friends to rebuke and denounce God.  However, Job never denounced God but continued to strive forward and persevere.  Eventually God restored what Job lost and then some.  You’ve all read the story of Job before and if you haven’t then I encourage you to do so because I certainly don’t have the time to do it justice this morning.

                Just remember that things are not always going to go the way that we want them to.  Scripture is filled with verses that speak to the wicked thriving in this life while the righteous struggle.  And we see that constantly in our world today.  However, that is not the way that things work on an eternity level.  I want you to look at what James says in between his call to be patient and his giving of the prophets and Job as examples of faithful patience.  James says, “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.”  If you’re looking at your Bible, then you will notice that the title “the Judge” is capitalized.  This is the way that we treat words like one, savior, his, or him when they refer to the Triune God.  Also, by telling us that the Judge is standing at the door, James is conveying the urgency with which we are to treat the second coming of Christ.  I know that it seems like it’s been a long time since Christ first came.  I know that when we read James and when we read Paul that it seems as if they thought that Christ’s coming was going to take place any day.  I also know that many Christians today (maybe even you) have grown doubtful of Christ’s return.  Well, maybe you don’t doubt it, but you don’t treat it with any urgency either.  We act as if there is a certainty within us that we know that Christ won’t return during our lifetime.  So, we’ve largely grown cold and tired of doing the things that he commanded us to do until his return.

                I’ll put it like this, when I run I typically start out with a distance in mind.  I may have in mind 3 miles, 4 miles, or 5 miles.  After about 2 miles I can judge what kind of day it’s going to be.  If I’m struggling, then I can definitely tell that it’s not going to be a 5 mile day.  However, there comes a time in every run where I really don’t want to continue on, but I know that I haven’t reached my distance yet.  I have to tell myself to keep going until I reach a certain point.  Now, I usually don’t have trouble reaching that distance, but it’s primarily because I can see the end.  I know the difficulty that many people face when it comes to the Christian faith and continuing to be patient and do the works of missions and evangelism is that they can’t see the end.  In fact, as I alluded to earlier, many Christians will tell you that the finish line is getting farther and farther away as our world slips further and further into sin.  However, I would remind them that every moment, every second that passes by brings us one second closer than we were to the return of the Christ.  The popular contemporary Christian band Third Day has a song called It’s Alright that’s about 15 years old that I’ve heard I don’t know how many times.  However, I just heard it within the last few weeks again and couldn’t help but think how perfect it is for our text today and explaining this point.  It goes:  Your letter said that you were leaving; But you didn't know how long; I have never stopped believing; That one day you would return; And though waiting is the hardest; Part of everything I do; I do confess it's getting better; Knowing I will be with you.   It's alright, It's okay, I won't worry about tomorrow, For it brings me one more day, Closer than I was to you.  Now the question isn't “will you”; What I want to know is “when”; If it's one day or a million; I will wait for you 'til then; So I'm holding on to your words; And the promises you've made; There is not one you have broken; There's not one I didn't take. 

                Friends, that’s what biblical patience is all about.  It’s about trusting in the promises of God.  It’s about continuing to do the things that He commanded and instructed us to do until he comes again.  It’s about truly believing and acting as if we fully know without a shadow of a doubt that He indeed is coming again.  The elements on the table before us, as you will hear me say in just a moment, are given to us and we are told by Jesus to eat of this bread and drinking of this cup and proclaim the Lord’s saving death until he comes again.  Friends, he is coming.  We don’t know when and we don’t know what exactly it will look like.  To be honest with you, it’s really none of our concern because it doesn’t change our job or our responsibilities one bit.  You know that answer that you give your kids or coaches give players when they ask how many or how long…until I say stop.  Well, Jesus has given us that very answer.  He’s told us to continue to proclaim his name, witness to others, baptize in his name, love others as we love ourselves, and love God above all else until he says stop.  And he will say stop at the time of his second coming.  But until then, we are to remain patient, remain active, and the remain fully and completely devoted to seeing the spread and growth of his kingdom here upon this earth, and to see that everyone who has ears to hear has heard the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know that it can feel like a never-ending task of proclaiming the gospel, but what is a lifetime of service upon this earth compared to an eternity in heaven with our risen Savior?  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

James 4:13-5:6 "Where's Your Allegiance"

                Before we really get into our text for today I want to come clean about something.  You see, I know that whenever I plan a sermon series that I have to move much quicker than I would really prefer.  Instead of taking roughly 10 weeks to walk through James’ epistle (like we’re doing), I would love to spend an entire year walking through this epistle.  Now, to some of you that may sound like a good idea, but to most it sounds painfully slow; you prefer the 10 week look much more than the year-long one.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting the quicker look, but it comes with a price.  The bad part about it is that when I have to rush myself through a text, there are times when a thought doesn’t get fully developed and it causes some problems down the road.  Well, last week was one of those weeks.  If you recall, we talked about worldliness vs. Godliness.  We spoke about how so often we choose to define ourselves in terms of the world and its values and not on God’s terms.  We seek after our earthly desires and not the will of God.  Now, we said all of this, but I failed to really put a name to all of it.  You see, all of this could be summed up by the word humility.  We are to have humility when it comes to God.  I said last week in closing that we’re stupid, ignorant, and foolish when it comes to what we really need.  In other words, we have no reason to be proud of who we are or boast about ourselves based on our own efforts and desires, so we need to humble ourselves before God.

                James ended the text that we looked at last week by talking about when we make ourselves judges; judges of ourselves, judges of others, and judges of God.  We ended last Sunday by seeing James ask the question of his audience, “But who are you to judge your neighbor?”  In other words, why do we think that we have any business or right to cast judgment upon anyone else?  Now, in our world today we are so quick and prone to do this that we don’t even realize that we are doing it.  I’ll admit to you that Amy and I are constantly saying to one another something about kids acting up in stores and talking about how parents need to take control.  We even do this with our friends and their kids some times.  However, we have little to no clue what is going on in their lives, and we both have to admit that if someone happened to catch us in one of those moments where our kids were in “rare form” they might think the same thing about us.  I’ll tell y’all something else that’s funny that happens when it comes to preaching.  I always chuckle a little when someone walks up to me and says, “Tommy that was a good sermon, I just wish so-and-so was here to hear it.”  I always say thank you and move on, but I always find myself wanted to ask the person if they actually heard it or if they just spent the whole time thinking about who wasn’t there.  You see, who are we to think and judge that any other person is more in need of hearing the good news of the gospel than we are?  Who are we to think that we are any better off than anyone else?  That’s the stage that James is setting for the text that we come to today.

                Now, what comes next is what on the surface seems like a hard left turn for James.  He seemingly changes the subject completely on us when he writes, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”  However, once we really unpack this statement, we start to see some of the things that thinking along such lines insinuates and presumes.  It presumes we will live as long as we please, that we can make whatever plans we please (we can go whenever we want to), or that we have the ability to execute whatever plan we conceive.  In other words, when we say that things will or will not happen and we say them with a sense of certainty as if we control the outcome, then we forget who is really in control.  I used to have a seminary professor who would say at the end of every class, “Lord willing, we will next meet one week from today in this same room.”  Now, several of us always wondered why he didn’t just say our next class would be next week, so we asked him about it.  His response was that there was absolutely nothing certain about our meeting next week.  He reminded us that neither the students, nor the professor had any control over being able to meet the next week.  You see, this is sort of the biblical way of stating that earthly adage of not taking any moment for granted.  We have to remember that all of the things that we take for granted, our family, our health, our security, and even our having a tomorrow, are gifts from God that are completely and totally in His hands.  We have to remember that most basic and simplest of biblical truths, that God alone is in control.

                After some discourse along this line of thought and a reminder to his audience just how fragile and momentary life is, James goes on to give an example of a type of person who commonly exhibits this boasting about the certainty of tomorrow, this person who many times seems to lack humility before God.  He goes on to talk about the rich.  Notice the connection that is made here with both this section and the previous one starting with the phrase, “Come now.”  Now, there are some pastors and biblical scholars who have taken this passage as a literal condemnation of those who have been blessed with great earthly wealth.  However, I don’t that that view of wealth fits in with the overall narrative of James, with Jesus’ teaching on the subject, or on Scripture’s stance on wealth as a whole.  There are even times like Proverbs 10:22 where wealth is seen as a sign of the Lord’s blessing.  After all, we’ve been talking about keeping things in their proper place in terms of priority.  In the encounter between Jesus and the rich young ruler as it is recorded in the Synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we see that Jesus’ issue isn’t with the man’s wealth, but with the lack of humility that he shows and his holding his earthly possessions as his main priority.  Well, if you will recall that last Sunday we talked about priorities and the things that the world places a high mark upon being things that are not high values in the kingdom of God.  You see, we live in a world where money means everything to us.  Recently, a boxing match took place between two premiere fighters, one of whom is named Floyd Mayweather.  Now, I won’t go into this man’s life story, but I’ll just say that he’s a bad dude who has been a serial offender of domestic assault.  Yet, he is given a place of privilege in our world because of the great wealth he has amassed.  However, it’s not like he is the only example of such a person that I could give.  There are numerous people on both a global and local level that are really not what we would consider to be kind people, yet they are given privilege because of their wealth.  We pay attention to what they have to say simply because of their material wealth.  The sad fact of the matter is that in the world where we find ourselves today, it’s really the outlier to find someone who has amassed great wealth who doesn’t have their wealth as their main priority.

                However, getting back to the text, we see that James paints a pretty dark picture here for the wealthy.  I want you to hear James’ words to the rich again, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.  Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.  Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire.  You have laid up treasure in the last days.  Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.  You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence.  You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.  You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.  He does not resist you.”  Now, upon first reading this, we may think that those who interpret this as wealth equaling sin as being correct.  However, think about what types of behaviors James is talking about.  He doesn’t ever say that because you are rich then you will be condemned.  No, it’s not about having wealth, but about what you do with it.  The type of person who is depicted here is someone who withholds their wealth from both God and those in need.  It’s the type of person who defrauds someone and who withholds a just payment.  It’s the type of person who really only cares about getting more earthly possessions.  You see, there is nothing wrong with wealth and riches in-and-of-themselves, as long as we are rightfully and faithfully using them in the service of God.  That’s really the key to everything isn’t it; rightfully using it in the service of God?

                I want to tell y’all two stories that have to do with choices about using earthly possessions.  The first of which was told to me by a friend of mine who is a lobbyist.  He told me a story one time about a client of his who out of the blue made a large donation to a charitable organization.  When asked why he would do such a thing (since it actually hurt his business pretty substantially to make this donation), he said that it was because he had recently made a big business deal, but after the completion of the deal, he realized that what he had gained was what he called “tainted” money.  By that I mean money that was obtained immorally; not illegally, but immorally.  How many would follow the lead of this man and give it away?  How many of us would justify to ourselves that it wasn’t like we did anything wrong and keep the money for ourselves?  The second story has to do with my father.  Now, I know that I’ve told some of you this before, but just bear with me.  You see, back in the late 90’s, my father was in the paint business and things were actually going pretty well.  Also at the same time, Mississippi State was completing the addition of several new skyboxes to their football stadium.  Well, a friend of my father’s was getting a skybox and wanted to know if my dad wanted to go in with him.  It would have meant a fairly significant cost increase for our season tickets to move from the regular seats to the skyboxes.  While thinking over this proposition, my father was approached by some in our church about increasing his giving in order to pay off the church mortgage.  He was able to determine very quickly that he couldn’t afford to increase his giving to the church, which caused him to realize that if his giving to the church couldn’t increase, then his giving for football shouldn’t either.  I’ve always been very proud of my father for that decision because honestly I know that it isn’t one that many people would or do make.  You see, many people find a way of being able to afford what they want, but never seem to be able to help anyone else out in their time of need.  Many people relegate the majority of their earthly wealth and resources for themselves and simply give God what’s left over after they’ve done as they pleased.

                So, how does all of this fit into the overall theme of True Faith Works that we’ve used as we’ve approached James’ epistle.  Well, remember that all of the things that we enjoy:  wealth, friends, family, status, power, fame, etc., all of these things are temporary.  The only thing in this world that is everlasting is God.  There’s nothing that we bring to the table that has any value in terms of our salvation.  The only one who has anything to offer is God:  the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the atonement for our sins, dwelling in heaven for all eternity.  So, we’re left with a situation where God is owed a debt that only he has the means to pay.  God has us completely dead-to-rights and is perfectly within his rights to leave us in the state of condemnation and misery that we placed ourselves in through our first parents Adam and Eve.  And not just that, we continuously place ourselves further in this state over-and-over again through our constantly sinning against God and straying from his will.  However, God doesn’t leave us in this broken condition.  Instead, he restores us and gives us the one thing that we need in order for our relationship with him to be set right once again.  God gives us his Son.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only begotten Son.”  Notice that nowhere in that most famous of verses from John’s gospel does it say anything about us earning the Son or us deserving the Son, but only that God gave him to us.

                You see, we’ve said all along that our good works ought to be our thank you’s to God and not an attempt at earning God’s favor.  I can think of nothing more that makes me want to do the work of building God’s kingdom than to realize what it is exactly that God has so freely given to us.  It’s not about God calling us to a live of isolation, poverty, and never being able to enjoy his blessings.  After all, the very first question of Westminster Short Catechism says that we are to glorify God and ENJOY him always.   God isn’t calling us to live lives of pain and misery.  He’s calling us to live the fullest life that we can.  The problem is that we don’t really know what a full life is.  We think we do, but many times those are just Satan’s temptations as to what a full life ought to look like.  A full life in the eyes of God is one that enjoys and cherishes the blessings (both big and small) that God gives, and uses everything that we have to glorify his name.  What good is it to have fame, wealth, power, or influence if you don’t use them in the service of God?  I want to close by reading some words from the apostle Paul that he wrote to his young protégé Timothy.  1 Timothy 6:17-19 reads, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” People always ask what the meaning of life is.  Well, this is the meaning of life, to do good works, to glorify God, and enjoy him forever. 

James 4:1-12 "Worldliness vs. Godliness"

                Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve spoken about the severity of sin.  We’ve talked about how when Scripture speaks of sin that it is not just referring to our outward actions.  No, sin refers to any lack of conformity to the will or law of God in thought, word, or deed.  Now, I’m fully aware that this look at the epistle of James was started back a few weeks ago with much of the conversation being about good works in the beginning.  It was about taking our faith and responding to the glorious news that we are found in Jesus Christ by doing good works.  So, why did I take a few weeks right here in the middle of it to talk about sin?  Well, there are two reasons why I would do such a thing.  The first and most obvious reason is that that is exactly what James did.  I’m simply following the text as James, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote it to begin with some almost 2000 years ago.  The second reason why I would do such a thing is that in order for us to truly understand the “good” portion of good works, we have to understand what bad, what sin, really is.  We have to understand why we are to respond to saving faith in such a manner.  You see, there are a lot of times when we may label something as being good, but it really isn’t.  Those sins that we talked about last Sunday of jealousy and selfishness can cause us to distort the truth with any situation.  We can take things that are sinful and tell ourselves that they’re really good.  We can make ourselves believe just about anything; we can justify almost anything in our minds.  In our text today, we’re going to explore the way in which worldliness and holiness (this inaccurate justification of things if you will) are at war within us, and we’re going to see that we so often view things from an earthly and worldly mindset and not the eyes of the gospel.

                James begins this text by asking his audience a rhetorical question as to what causes quarrels and fights amongst them.  He says, “Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?”  He then goes on to elaborate what he means when he talks about passions being at war within us.  He’s talking about worldliness versus holiness.  He’s talking about the mind that seeks God being opposed to the mind that seeks things of earthly value.  The sins of coveting and jealousy are at play and they are causing a distortion within us.  We want but we can’t have so we turn our full attention to getting.  We don’t have because we haven’t asked, and even when we do ask it isn’t for God’s glory but for our own.  What does this all mean?  What is James talking about?  Well, he’s talking about the fact that we so easily become fixed upon what we want that we forsake God.  Now, we may not say openly that we’re going to forsake God, but we do so through our actions.  When we place a friendship, a new car, the purchase of a new home, or getting that dream job as the most important thing in our life, we are forsaking God.  When we say the words “My life would be complete if I had ______” and we don’t fill that blank with God, then we are forsaking Him.  The most prominent example I can think of in Scripture is that of Israel wondering in the wilderness.  Despite God’s delivering them out of slavery (something that they were crying out for by the way), once they were in the dessert all they wanted was comfort.  Forget the fact that God had given them all that they wanted and that God was dwelling with them and leading them to the Promised Land.  All that really mattered to them was getting what they wanted and not what God had in store for them.  Well, James has some words for his audience that could apply to both wandering Israel and to us as well, “You adulterous people!”

                He goes on to add to that even further:  “Do you not 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.  Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’?”  This is one of the texts that people often point to when speaking of the command to be in the world but not of the world.  However, it’s a very difficult thing isn’t it?  I’m not going to sugarcoat it and make it seem as if it’s an easy thing accomplish.  And even if we are able to get to a point where things of this world aren’t important to us, it’s really hard to stay there.  Getting there is one challenge and staying there is an entirely new challenge.  They say that the hardest thing to do in sports is to repeat as champions.  It’s not because players move and teams change, but because it is exhausting giving that much energy and most people don’t have the drive to sustain that from year to year.  In terms of our faith, this is the battle of Christ versus culture that we are watching play out on a number of different levels.  We’re watching in essence, God vs. America in the case of how we will define marriage.  Now, the definition of true marriage won’t change because God doesn’t change.  We are the ones trying to change the definition.  “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.”  We’re seeing this battle played out as well in arena of the church.  God has established a certain order and a certain criteria for proper worship and a vetting process for those who are fit to serve in special offices within His church.  However, we’re (and by “we” I mean fallen man) trying to change things to make it more pleasing to us.  It’s not going to be more pleasing to God unless it’s more accurate to what He has already laid out in Scripture.  Anything other than that would by definition be less pleasing to God.  However, there is a place where this war is being fought between the world and God that is much more fragile than anything else and it’s a place that affects everything else; it’s within us.  We are at war with God when we keep trying to turn from him to pursue our earthly desires.  You see, our God is a jealous God, but not jealous in the sinful sense.  I’m going to get in trouble for saying this but that’s never stopped me before.  I’m going to pick on my mother and my mother-in-law for a moment.  You see, when we’re around them, they serve as both grandmothers and surrogate mothers to our kids.  If our kids fall down, then they care for scraped knees and all sorts of injuries.  However, there are times when my wife (yes I’m bringing her into this too) will look at me and say “I’m the mama, I’m going in there.”  Now, she doesn’t mean anything bad, but there is just a sense of love and compassion that she feels as Mom and I feel as Dad that no one else does with our kids.  That doesn’t mean that others can love them, but there’s just a special relationship there that if you wanted to you could attach the word jealous to it.  That’s the type of connection that God has to all of his children.  Sure, he likes for us to love our families and our friends and our jobs, but he doesn’t want those things to ever become the most important things in our lives instead of him.  However, that’s what we are constantly trying to do, putting these other things as the most important things in our lives.  When we elevate our own friends, family, and selves above faithfulness to God then we have chosen those things over Him.  If you’ve ever compromised your Christian principles in order to accommodate someone else, then you’ve chosen them over God.  Do you see why it is that this war is so dangerous?  It’s so subtle yet so deadly.

                Now, getting back to the text, I realize that I’m not very far along here, but we’re setting the stage for something to come.  After James’ charge to his audience to lay aside their pride and self-worth and rest more in the grace that God bestows upon them, he takes a more commanding tone.  Instead of just simply pointing out where they are and where they ought to be, he gives them instructions on how to seek godliness over worldliness.  Submit to God, resist the devil, draw near to God, cleanse your hands, and purify your hearts are some of these instructions that he gives us.  Now, it’s worth noting that when we are told to resist the devil that we point out the fact that while God’s grace is irresistible to those who he bestows it upon, the pull of the devil is completely resistible.  It may take a great deal of work, but it can be resisted.  Satan is not anywhere close to an equal in power compared to God.  I know this will sound odd, but I usually equate Satan’s power to that of food’s power over my dog.  You see, anytime a piece of food hits the ground, Gumbo is right there on top of it.  In fact, when we eat, he just lays under the table because it’s easier.  However, there are certain things that are bad for him and so we have had to teach him not to just charge at anything that falls.  Instead, he waits a moment and if no one is telling him to stop, then he goes ahead and eats it.  Now, even when we tell him not to, there is still a struggle to resist within him that you can see through the shaking of his feet and the constant glancing back and forth between you and the food.  But despite the strong temptation, that doesn’t mean that he is completely powerless to resist.  You see we can resist the devil; we can resist sin and temptation.  However, unlike my dog, we’re not left to resist such things by ourselves.  We’re not expected to be able to resist the power of sin and temptation by the sheer magnitude of our wills.  NO, we are given the power of God through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit to help us overcome the power of sin.

                James calls us to mourn over our sins in verse 9 and humble ourselves before the Lord in verse 10.  Remember those Beatitudes of “Blessed are those who mourn” and “Blessed are the meek.”  We could take that a step further with verse 11 when James tells us, “Do not speak evil against one another.”  This is the command of the beatitude that calls us to be peacemakers (i.e. someone who seeks to reconcile another to God and seeks only fruitful speech).  Do you remember what each of these Beatitudes (or blessed be’s) promised?  Well, they promised comforting, inheriting the earth, and being declared sons of God.  James here is calling us to the Christian way of life.  He’s turning our attention and the focus of his message back to where he began this letter by saying that acknowledging sin isn’t enough just as simply acknowledging Jesus as Savior isn’t enough.  He’s telling his audience (and us) that acknowledgement without action (or more accurately acknowledgement that doesn’t lead to action) is a road that ends in devastation and destruction.  Near the end of this discourse James brings up a familiar line.  “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 are not a doer of the law but a judge.”  Doesn’t this remind you of James saying that we must be doers of the word and not just hearers?  Well, what exactly is the danger with being a judge?  “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.”  So, what’s the danger with just hearing God’s word and not doing?  What’s the danger with not doing the law and judging?  Well, such things render us trying to take the place of God in our lives.  Such things find us committing the same sin as Adam and Eve in the Garden when they wanted to know what God knew and become gods themselves.  Sure, they may not have had those express goals, but they wanted to be the standard-setters for their lives.  Throughout all of their existence God had told them what was good and what was bad.  Everything was good and the only thing that was bad was the eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  However, they decided (after being tempted by the serpent) that eating of that tree wasn’t bad but would be good for them.

                Friends, we’re clueless, we’re dumb, and we’re foolish.  Some folks have a hard time admitting that about themselves, but I’m not one of those people.  In all honesty, no Christian should struggle with admitting that either.  We have absolutely no clue what is best for us.  We know what we want and we think that it’s best for us, but we are clueless as to what is truly best for us.  We allow ourselves to view things from the worldly perspective.  After all, that’s the only perspective that we can approach things from.  However, it isn’t the perspective that God approaches from.  God sees all things past, present, and future.  God knows the outcome and he knows whom he will call to saving faith and whom he will give over to the passions of this world.  And by sheer grace, God bestows upon those whom he calls to see things from a bit of his perspective.  Now, obviously we don’t see all that God sees and know all that he knows, but we are given an assurance from him that he is working all things together for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purposes.  Yet, despite this fact, we constantly value the world’s ideals, opinions, and definitions of success more than we value God’s.  It’s tough fighting worldliness.  It’s tough keeping our eyes fixed upon God and not upon the temptations of this world.  In fact, we can’t do it, at least not by ourselves.  Once again, this is where we rely upon God.  We rely upon the only one who has a vantage point, a perspective that is not of this world.  We rely upon him totally and completely.  And when we do, then we finally have a chance at keeping holiness above worldliness.  And this being able to have a chance of overcoming worldliness is just another reason in an ever-growing list as to why we are to respond to God’s saving grace and the faith that he grants us by doing good works.  “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.”  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

James 3:13-18 "Which Wisdom Will It Be?"

                I began our time together last Sunday by reciting to you both the question and answer for Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.82.  Now, I won’t recite it again, but I will simply sum it up by saying that we sin, we stray from God, daily in thought, word, and deed.  We noted that it was well-known and universally accepted at the time of James’ writing this epistle that sin could be and was manifested through outward actions (deeds).  We also spent last Sunday looking at the ways in which we are so quick to sin with our mouths (words).  Instead of using our mouths for glorifying God (as they were intended to do), we instead use them to speak endlessly about sinful desires or mundane things that bring about no glory to God whatsoever.  Well, today we’re going to deal with that third and final aspect of this trifecta of sin.  We’re going to talk about how we sin in thought as well.  However, much like with the tongue last week, we are going to see that some pretty wonderful things can be done for God’s kingdom through our thoughts, but it is only when we fully rely upon Him that this is even remotely possible.  It is only through our reliance upon Christ that our thoughts can be inclined to glorify God.

                James begins this text by asking the question, “Who is wise and understanding among you?”  Now, by speaking about two aspects of mental ability (wisdom and understanding), we can reasonably make the connection that James here is talking about the mind of a person.  Also, as I said earlier, it fits perfectly into this context of showing the severity of our sin in action, word, and thought.  He goes on to say, “By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”  In other words, just as James has already told us that our faith ought to be displayed via our works, so also our wisdom, our minds being turned towards God, ought to be seen through our living lives that honor God.  The word meekness, if you recall our look at the Beatitudes this past fall, doesn’t mean weak or feeble like so many think.  No, instead it has more to do with gentleness and humility, having a humble spirit.  James is calling for a level of humility when it comes to our thoughts, to our wisdom.

                Then, James makes a sharp turn away from speaking about how we are to incline our minds towards God for the moment and gives us the other side of the coin.  He says, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.  This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”  Now, we may think that earthly and unspiritual are acceptable words to use here, but that demonic may be going to bit too far.  Well, just see what James says in the very next verse, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”  You see, jealousy and selfishness are what we might consider the gateway sins.  What do I mean by gateway sins?  Well, I’m talking about sinful thoughts and desires that really expose us to the myriad of things that we might list when thinking about sins.  Jealousy and selfishness are really the root causes of things like theft, coveting, murder, adultery, or deceitfulness.  A person commits theft because they are jealous of what someone else has.  A person commits adultery because they are both jealous of what someone else has and also selfish as to what they want in a relationship.  I know that this really isn’t the subject that we’re on, but I’ll just go on record as having said that anyone who tells you that they were thinking about anyone but themselves while committing adultery is telling a complete lie. 

                Just think about what James is saying here.  He’s saying that if you’re thinking about yourself, if you’re putting yourself in the center of your thoughts and your desires, then you have no reason to boast and your idea of truth is skewed.  Wisdom, a mind, that is working as it should, has God in the center; if it doesn’t then “it is not the wisdom that comes down from above,” as James says.  So, do you think that demonic is too strong of a word?  Well, the truth is that very little in this world is neutral in terms of God.   We’re either being drawn closer to God or we’re pushing  further away.  If something is earthly (i.e. being of this fallen world) and unspiritual, then it is opposed to God.  Therefore if it is opposed to God, then it is in the service of Satan, who is the head of all demons.  I mean, think about the magnitude of that for just a second.  If any part of our thinking isn’t in line with the will of God then it is demonic.  Even the fleeting thoughts of anger or jealousy or enviousness or covetousness are against the will of God and should rightly place us outside of his covenant blessings.  As I’ve talked with many of you about this notion of sin being in thought, word, and deed, you have readily admitted your belief that that is indeed the case.  However, many of you view this notion of sin in thought to be the real killer.  You can put on a good face and be kind to someone (action) and you can even be kind to them through your words, but you can’t help but to have that thought in your mind about your distain for them.  We read the words of Jesus as Matthew recorded them when he said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.”  Now, I can keep myself from murdering someone.  I can even keep myself from insulting them verbally, but I am powerless to prevent my anger.  This leaves us in much the same place that we were in last Sunday with respect to taming the tongue; we have to rely upon Jesus completely to give us the power to turn our minds in the right direction.  So, what is the right direction?

                “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.  And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”  So, by a quick show of hands, how many of us can say that our minds, our thoughts, are completely and naturally inclined with this list of what faithful godly wisdom is and how it ought to look in our lives?  Look, I know that you’re going to look at this list and say that several of these things go against basic human nature.  My response is that that’s the exact point that James is trying to make here.  If it is wisdom that is from above (i.e. from God) then it isn’t going to naturally align completely with fallen (i.e. sinful) human nature, at least not based on our efforts alone.  Just go down this list really quickly and look at some of these things.  Sure, we may be inclined to some of them through our personalities, but not all of them.  First off, none of us are pure in thought so we’re all eliminated right off the bat.  To be peaceable is to have a mind for true peace, free of a mindset that lends itself to quarrels.  To be gentle is to be thoughtful and respectful of other people’s opinions.  Now, we may tell ourselves that we are this way, but I can promise you that all of us have left a conversation before and spoken the phrase “He’s just an idiot who has no idea what he’s talking about.”  If you’ve ever sought your own way regardless of what someone else had to say then you have at least at some point not been open to reason.  Full of mercy and good fruits are quite honestly calls to a measure of charity and compassion that we cannot even fathom.  And to be impartial and sincere in their truest form again is something that we lack because of our fallen natures, because of the total depravity of mankind.  So, we have the destination of where our minds ought to be, but we need the map for how to get there.

                Y’all I am directionally challenged.  I will admit to you and Amy can confirm that I am completely lost when it comes to traveling somewhere that is even the slightest bit unfamiliar to me.  If I drive to someone’s house at night and it is the first time I go there, I have no clue how to get back there the next day.  It’s as if I wake up in one of those movies where someone waits out a natural disaster and after emerging from a house or a building find the place where they are to look nothing like it did when they closed the door.  I’m thankful that I live in a time where maps are readily available.  I’m even more thankful that I live in a time when most cell phones have some type of GPS or map service as part of their basic functions.  I used to have to sit down and plan my trips out very specifically, taking care not to omit one detail because the slightest missed turn and I was in trouble.  Now, all I need is an address and a cell phone with a charged battery and I feel like I could navigate my way to anywhere in the world.  I know where I am starting out, I know where I need to get to, and I have my means of telling me how to get there.  Why am I telling you about my being challenged when it comes to my sense of direction and my thankfulness for GPS devices?

                Well, James has really already laid most of this out for us and in the verses immediately after our text, which we will look at next Sunday, he will give the final part to this equation by telling us of the importance of Christ (although, we all should know that by now shouldn’t we).  But James has already pointed out for us what earthly wisdom (where we are) looks like.  He’s already told us that when we think from an earthly perspective that our thoughts and our minds are going to be filled with selfishness and jealousy which are sinful and will lead us to sin even further with our words and our actions.  James has also already told us where is it that we are trying to get to (our hopeful destination if you will).  We are trying to get from earthly wisdom to “wisdom from above” (i.e. Godly or heavenly wisdom).  He’s given us those things that ought to be present when our minds are rightly fixed upon God, that list of characteristics and works that we looked at a moment ago.  Now, as I said a second ago, even though James is saving the revealing for how we tame our tongues and how we get from earthly wisdom to heavenly wisdom for a little while longer, that doesn’t mean that we don’t know the answer.

                We all know that sin is a powerful force in the world and in our lives.  We all know that these notions of jealousy and selfishness have the ability to make us do some pretty horrific things.  And not only that, we do these horrific things so often that we become calloused, we become immune almost to our even doing them.  Whether it’s talking about someone else or promoting ourselves with our words, or if it’s thinking hateful things about another person and putting ourselves as the main priority in this life, we cannot deny the grasp that sin has on us.  Yes, sin is a pretty big force, but the Christian has a force working for him that is much stronger.  The Christian has One working on his behalf who the mere mention of his name causes the agents of sin to shudder in fear.  We have Christ.  We have the power of the Holy Spirit.  We have God working in us, and to us, and through us to help us overcome these sinful thoughts, these sinful actions, and these sinful words.  Now, unfortunately, we are just that far fallen and sinful that God’s process of working in us to bring about our salvation will take our entire lives.  We’re like children who want to be cleaned, yet when we’re placed in the bathtub we try as hard as we can to get out of the tub and undo all the cleansing that has been done.

                I’m trying to be careful here to not go too much into our text for next Sunday, but I’ll just end by saying this:  the world is fallen and sinful and God is not.  Therefore, the world and the things that it teaches us that we are to live by (what we say, how we think, how we act) are not always going to be in line with the things of God.  Now, there may be moments where the principles that this world teaches and the standard to which God calls us closely aligned and bear great semblance.  Both God and the world teach us that murder is wrong, although God’s definition as we saw with Jesus’ words earlier goes much further, much more to the heart of a person.  The only hope that we have of ever breaking free of the ideals of this fallen world and aligning ourselves with God’s will is to completely and totally rely upon Him.  We have to completely rely upon Jesus Christ, our Advocate with the Father.  We have to rely upon the Holy Spirit to move in us and not just change us and clean us up some, but to create within us a whole new person.  We have to rely completely and totally upon God to create in us the person who is worthy of God’s gift of eternal life.  And the only way in which that is possible, is through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.  Through the bearing of our sins and the willing death of the one and only righteous Son, we find forgiveness or sins.  Through Christ’s work, we find our hope for salvation, we find our only means by which we may come before the Father.  We find grace and mercy from above.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

James 3:1-12 "Taming the Tongue"

                Q. 82 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, a series of questions that summarize the confessional doctrine that we subscribe to, the Westminster Confession of Faith, asks the question:  “Can anyone perfectly keep the commandments of God?”  Answer:  “Since the fall no ordinary man can perfectly keep the commandments of God in this life but breaks them every day in thought, word, and action.”  Any time I get into a conversation about sin and not conforming to the will of God, I am reminded that it isn’t just about how we act, but how we act, what we say, and even what we think.  We can have hatred in our hearts for someone, yet outwardly show them acceptance and speak kindly to them, but we still find ourselves to be guilty of sin.  When we truly view sin as it is, then we have a whole new level of understanding for how depraved we truly are.  It’s like when we walked through the Ten Commandments at the beginning of last year, how we saw that Jesus not only stated that we are to keep each commandment, but that we must go a step beyond that as well.  Well, James, in teaching this group of Jewish Christians about the relationship between faith and works, has to show them that their works truly cannot save them; that they are not justified by their works.  Now, if he would have had this question from WSC, then he could have made his point much more precisely.  However, Westminster Assembly didn’t exist yet, and wouldn’t for quite some time (roughly 1500 years).  So, he had to teach this idea of the severity of sin by some other means.

                Well, it was pretty well understood that sin could be manifested through outward expressions, through actions.  In fact, that was how these Jewish Christians had grown up viewing sin.  That’s how many of us today view sin.  We have an almost child-like view of sin.  I was sitting in the bed with Thomas the other night and we were talking about sin and I asked him to tell me what sin was.  His definition was that sin is when we do bad things.  I told him that he was right, but that it was much more than that.  I told him that sin was when we did things, said things, or even thought things that God didn’t approve of (it’s a working definition).  Unfortunately, many of those in James’ audience and many Bible-believing Christians today stop their definition of sin at outward actions.  So, James’ words that we’re going to look at for the next few weeks have to do with teaching us about the dangers that come from our speech and our thoughts.  Today, we’re going to look at the dangers of speech.

                During Jesus’ earthly ministry, one of the things that seemed to keep coming up was the Pharisees constant questioning of Jesus’ actions.  They constantly questioned in particular, his and his disciples’ actions concerning the keeping of Pharisaic and Jewish laws and customs.  In Mark’s gospel account, he records for us an encounter in which Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and told them what they claimed was law was actually more of a tradition that they had created, particularly the ritual cleansings before eating (although it cannot be disputed that God did give certain ceremonial laws to Israel).  After this encounter, he taught a little further, saying these words:  “Hear me, all of you, and understand:  There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”  Now, the disciples didn’t understand this, which isn’t surprising because they were often confused.  So, they asked Jesus to clarify.  “And he said to them, ‘Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’” 

                The tongue is a powerful muscle.  Growing up, I would always hear people say that the tongue was the strongest of all the muscles in the human body.  Now, while that may not be scientifically accurate, it sort of is from a relational perspective.  You see, no other muscle in the human body carries with it the devastating power or potential that the tongue does.  Even when we hurt someone physically or emotionally, we almost always accompany that with some sort of verbal harm as well.  Words have the power to crush like a hammer or cut like a knife.  It’s ironic that my parents are here and that it’s Mother’s Day and yet I’m going to talk about how awful I was as a kid, especially with my tongue.  You see, when I was younger, I said some awful things to my parents and in particular to my mom.  We can laugh about some of them now (kind of) since we’ve gotten past that point in our relationship, but that doesn’t mean that the damage that they did isn’t still there.  There are nights that I hear my kids say things to me or about me that aren’t even in the same stratosphere as some of the things that I said to my mom, yet they cause me to shudder.  When I leave the house for meetings, my kids cheer.  “Yeah, daddy’s not going to be here, he’s going to a meeting.”  Now, we laugh about it, but I’ll be honest, it hurts a little.  It never fails, as I’m driving to one of those meetings, I sit and think about how if them saying that to me hurts me like it does, I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for my mom to hear some of the things I said.  Now, I know that there is coming a day when my kids will possibly say something worse to or about me.  Hopefully not, but I know that it certainly is a possibility. 

                James points out here the power that the tongue can have by comparing it to three tiny objects that can steer or maneuver some pretty major things.  He likens the tongue to the rudder of a ship, the bit in a horse’s mouth, and a spark that sets a whole forest ablaze.  All three of these things are tiny, but can cause some major activity.  A bit is only a few inches long, yet has the power to steer a powerful animal such as a horse.  A rudder is relatively small compared to a ship, yet it directs the entire vessel.  And a spark is seemingly insignificant, yet it can set a whole forest on fire.  The tongue, while being relatively small compared to the rest of our bodies, has the power to steer us into some terrible places.

                James says that “every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.”  Now, this may seem like a bit of an odd statement to make.  If mankind can’t tame the tongue, then how are we expected to ever live up to the standard of not sinning in word?  Well, two things are of note about this verse.  First, we were capable at the time of our creation, but we lost that in the fall just as we lost the ability to not sin in action or thought.  Secondly, the Greek used here that is translated “human being” could more accurately be interpreted as no ordinary man.  In other words, we don’t have the power to abstain from sinning in word, but Jesus does, and he did.  You see, we’re prone to do exactly what James talks about in verses 9 and 10.  “With [our 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.”  It’s nothing for us to use our tongues to do good things for God’s kingdom and then turn around and do something destructive.  We can witness and evangelize and proclaim God’s word one minute, and then turn around and spread rumors and gossip the very next.  It is both a blessing and a curse.  Instead, James says that our tongues ought to be like springs or fig trees which produce only what they ought to produce.  Springs produce a constant flow of water that is seemingly always the same temperature regardless of what the climate is like around it.  Fig trees produce only figs, not grapes or olives or any other fruit.  Our mouths ought to only produce things that are glorifying to God.  Our words ought to be those that seek only the promotion of his kingdom and not the destruction or desecration of it.

                Now, James doesn’t really give the answer here as to what we are to do about taming the tongue.  No, instead he waits quite some time (halfway through chapter 4 to be exact) before giving us the answer.  Notice that even though James has said that we ourselves cannot bridle the tongue, he never once removes that responsibility from us.  Instead, James is building up to the point of telling us just one more reason as to why it is that we need Jesus so desperately.  We’re going to look at the words that James penned as to how we tame the tongue and deal with sin in other areas of our life by submitting ourselves to God and resting in His grace in a few weeks, so I’m going to save that for such time.  However, I want to connect the reliance that we have upon Jesus for taming the tongue to another reliance that we remember this day through the elements on the table before us.  Well, in actuality, it’s really the same reliance, just seen through this means of grace known as the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  You see, these elements that sit on the table before us, the bread and the cup, representing the body and blood of Jesus Christ, represent our only hope.  They represent our only hope for salvation.  They represent our only hope of overcoming our sinful thoughts, our sinful words, and our sinful actions.  These elements represent everything to us. 

As we look at these words of James about the taming of the tongue and our need for Jesus to help us do so in the overall context of this sermon series title True Faith Works, what do we take from these words? Well, first off, this is, as I said earlier, one more reason for us to be thankful for the work of Christ.  This is one more reason for why we ought to respond to the good news of the gospel with good works instead of complacency.  The second thing is that James tells us that we can glorify God through our words.  It’s not as if the only thing that our mouths can be used for is destruction.  Good things can be done the sake of the gospel through the right and proper use of our tongues.  So, I want you to ask yourself how you use your tongue.  Do you spread gossip?  Do you talk about other folks regularly?  When you get around some of your friends is your conversation dominated by the friends that aren’t there at that moment?  Maybe you don’t talk about other people, but do you talk about anything good?  Or is your conversation filled with vulgarities or sinful desires?  Is it filled with words about earthly wealth and material things?  Friends, we may not have the power to tame our own tongues, but we have the power of the Holy Spirit working in us to give us that ability.  Don’t let this instrument of such wonderful potential be used in the service of Satan to tear down the gospel.  Instead, use your words to build up God, to strengthen His people, and seek the glorification of His kingdom here on earth.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

James 2:14-26 "Faith Must Produce Good Works"

                If someone were to stop you at some point this week and ask you if you attended a Christian church worship service regularly then you would probably answer yes.  If they asked you what the pastor had been preaching about lately, hopefully you could answer them by telling them that we were currently working through the epistle/book of James.  If they responded by saying, “You know, I’ve never really spent much time in James, could you sum up that book for me in as few words as possible?” could you answer them?  Well, my hope is that you could answer them by just giving them the title that I’ve repeatedly given you as to this sermon series:  True Faith Works.  This title is deliberate in that it conveys the fact that true saving faith, while producing salvation, ought to produce good works as well.  That’s the mindset that we are to have when it comes to the relationship of faith and works.

                You see, this text, the one that we have for today, is one of the most often, in my opinion, misinterpreted texts in all of Scripture.  This is the text that many people misinterpret to somehow think that our works play any role in our salvation at all in terms of our earning it.  James begins by asking, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?”  You see, many have interpreted this verse to pit faith against works.  They see these words as James making a distinction between faith and works and placing works above faith or on equal footing in terms of their salvific value.  However, if you will recall, I said that the focus of this entire look at James’ epistle would be on connecting faith AND works, not distinguishing them.  Remember C.S. Lewis’ quote about faith and works being two blades on a pair of scissors…neither one is any good without the other?  The question that really must be answered of James introductory remarks here is, “What does faith mean?”  As we’ve already seen, James doesn’t consider faith to be simply acknowledgment of God and Jesus as his Son.  James doesn’t consider a memorization of Scripture and right theology to be faith.  James considers faith to be a belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior and an understanding of what God has done for us that leaves us with no options other than to rejoice, praise him, and respond with carrying out the good works that God has commanded us to do.

                Did y’all know that my father-in-law is a doctor?  Some of you are thinking, “I’ve met your father-in-law and he’s not a doctor.  He worked for the Corp of Engineers.”  You’re right, he did, and he’s technically a marine biologist.  However, he does have his PhD, and when Amy and I got married our programs said Dr. and Mrs. Steven Lane Ashby.  “That’s not a real doctor” some of you are thinking.  Well, I’m not getting into that debate, but I have shown you that a word as plain as doctor can have multiple meanings depending on your perspective.  Well, from James’ perspective (and ours as well), faith does too.  What some consider faith I would just call church attendance.  What some consider faith I consider a passing relationship with God.  What some would call faith I would simply call a quest for knowledge about the spiritual.  These are the types of faiths that James is referring to when he asks, “Can that faith save him?”  You see, James has already laid out with quite a bit of forcefulness that true faith, a saving faith, is one that spurs us to do good works as well.  To drive this point home, James gives us four different case studies or examples for seeing what true faith looks like.

                The first study or example that he gives us is found in vv. 15-17.  “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  This is a hypothetical example of someone coming up to another who is without clothing (although the Greek reads more of a lack of outer garments); so this is someone in their underwear and lacking adequate nutrition.  We’re not talking about the latest fashions or the best meal; we’re talking about the basic necessities.  Playing off of the example involving favoritism that we saw last Sunday, imagine your reaction between a stranger and someone you know.  We would certainly jump into action and give our friends or our family the shirt off of our backs and the food off of our plates, but would we do that with the stranger?  Would we help them or would we just give them some empty cliché about God being with them.  Of course, we know that God will be with them if they are his children, but aren’t we called to more.  Look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 25 as he talks about what he will have to say to all at the time of judgment.  “‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  You see the difference between faith that works and faith that is dead?  Do you see that Jesus never says that as long we acknowledge him to be the Incarnate Son, then there is no need for action?

                The next case study of sorts that James gives us is what we find in vv. 18-19.  “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’  Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that God is one; you do well.  Even the demons believe—and shudder!”  Now, one word of caution on this one is that we cannot fall into the trap of going too far in the other direction and mistaking good works as sure signs of faith in Christ.  There are many people out there who are good and moral, yet are completely separated from Christ.  Basically, what James is telling his audience here is that while faith is crucial, there must also be some expression of it for us to really know that it has taken root.  Simply having faith and believing in Christ as our savior isn’t enough.  Now, it’s not insufficient from a salvation standpoint, but from the perspective that if we actually do have this true saving faith, then good works will naturally flow from it.  Again, James isn’t denying the concept that we’re saved by faith alone in Christ alone, but he’s saying that when we have this faith, which alone is our hope for salvation, then good works will naturally flow out from it.  If they don’t, then it’s not real faith; just look at the demons as an example.

                Now, hypotheticals are always good teaching points, but real life examples tend to drive a point home much better.  Well, James, knowing this, gives the examples of Abraham and Rahab from the Old Testament as the final two case studies on true faith working.  “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?”  First, think of Abraham.  Think back to that story in Genesis 22 when Abraham is willing to sacrifice his Son, Isaac, only to have God provide a substitute via a ram caught in the thicket.  Abraham’s work of being willing to sacrifice his son validated the faith that Abraham had in God, a faith that God gave to him.  Now, I need to clear up a bit of a misinterpretation from many English translations of James 2.  When we read the words of James saying that Abraham’s faith “was completed by his works” and that he was “justified by works and not faith alone” our first thought is that it seems as if James is advocating some type of works righteousness.  It seems upon first glance that James is at odds with Paul’s words in Romans 4 when he said that Abraham was justified by faith.  “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.’”  This last part being Paul’s quotation of the words of Genesis 15:6.  However, we need to understand the words completed and alone in their respective contexts.  When James says that Abraham’s faith was completed by his works, he’s saying it with the mindset that once his works were seen, then we knew that his faith was real.  And when he says that Abraham was justified by his works and not his faith alone, he’s simply repeating this same sentiment.  He’s simply repeating what he said just prior to this about head knowledge or acknowledgement alone not being enough, not being a true faith.  In order for it to be a true faith, it ought to produce good works as well.

                The final example of true faith comes from that of Rahab, the story of the helpful pagan prostitute in Joshua 2.  In summation, despite having every reason to divulge the location of two Hebrew spies, she keeps them safe from the king of Jericho.  When asked why she would do such a thing, she tells the spies that she knows that this is from the Lord.  Now, we can understand why James would use Abraham as an example for these Jewish Christians, but Rahab?  Well, in keeping with the theme that salvation, true saving faith, comes from much more than head knowledge, then it is a very fitting example.  Also, Rahab was someone who was not part of national Israel, thus showing that salvation is for the Gentiles as well as the Jews.  You see, all that Rahab knew of God was the stories that had made their way to Jericho.  She had heard of the exodus from Egypt and the events in the wilderness.  Yet, all it took for her to know the power of God was to hear the mighty things that he had done on account of his people.  This was enough for her to have faith, and to put that faith into action. 

James ends by saying, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”  I want you to glance back over our text for today.  What you find is that three times James repeats this sentiment.  Verse 17, “So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  Verse 20, “faith apart from works is useless (or dead)”, and now these words here in v. 26.  Do you think that James is trying to tell us something here about faith without works?  He’s telling us that one should produce the other.  He’s telling us that faith, true saving faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, should produce good works.  Faith in the God as he is revealed to us through His Word, ought to ignite us into action.  I really don’t know any better way to bring this to a close than to simply ask a question that we’ve asked over and over again and will continue to ask for the rest of this series, does your faith work?  If you can sit here this morning and read your Bible during the week and remain unstirred to go out in search of the poor, the desperate, and the lost, then you have to ask yourself if you truly have faith.  We’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  However, we know that we have such saving faith because it causes our hearts to be stirred to action.  We don’t do things (or at least we shouldn’t) to gain public notoriety or praise from someone else.  We don’t do good works to receive praise from men, but because of the joy that we have in knowing that God has created us, sustained us, and given up his Son for our salvation.  We are to respond to the good news of the gospel by giving God all we have in every aspect of life.  There is nothing that we can be called to do that is too much compared to what God has already done for us.  We must ask, “Does my faith produce good works?”  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.