We looked at how true saving faith responds properly to trials, temptations, to the Word of God and to God’s standards of holy living. That was chapter 1. In chapter 2 we looked at what our response should be to people of different social classes and what it means to produce good works from our faith. We then looked at how dangerous our mouths can be when God doesn’t have control over them, what it means to have heavenly wisdom and how we should be in the world, but not of the world. Friends of God rather than friends of the world. That was all in chapter 3. Chapter 4 showed us how we need to hit our knees and submit ourselves to God and His will in all aspects of our live, including our planning for the future. And then last week we talked some more about the suffering we will endure but what our view of it should be and what our view of money and truthfulness should be.

So here we are. At the end. If you remember back at the beginning when we started I mentioned that this letter is a little different from the other letters of the New Testament because of the way James opens. Most of the letters begin with a nice introduction on who’s writing, who it’s for, and then giving them a welcoming “Grace and peace to you…” type line. But as we have seen throughout James doesn’t beat around the bush. He welcomes his readers with a ‘I’m James, I’m writing to you, let’s get to it’ and he’s off and running with the meat of his letter.

Well the same is true for the end of his letter. Every other letter of the New Testament ends with a short prayer of blessing, with most closing with ‘Amen’ or ‘Grace to you’. There’s none of that here. As we’ll talk about in a sec, James ends with ‘make sure you are out there saving the lost. The End. Get out there.’

But before he ends, he repeats a theme that he talked about in the beginning of his letter. Verse 13: “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.” This echoes the beginning of chapter 1 where he talks about what we as a mature Christian be doing when we are facing a trial. We shouldn’t grumble about it, say the whole ‘whoa is me’ speech. That’s what the world says. Instead scripture says we need to pray to God for wisdom. This is nothing new to us. God is the same when we are struggling through something as when we are blessed beyond our imagination. He’s the same God when we fail the test as when we ace it.

This next part of the book, v.14-15 is one of the most mistranslated. The Greek word that is translated in the NIV as ‘sick’ is ‘astheneo’ (a-s-then-e-o). Many people use it to refer to the physical healing that comes from prayer. But the context of the rest of the chapter indicates a more spiritual healing that takes place. The spiritual suffering that comes from being tested for a long time, the trials of life. They may be weakened from battle, have become discouraged with things and with God, may have lost the will to continue the fight, maybe even played with sinful thoughts. That’s when they are to seek out the spiritually strong, the ‘elders of the church’ to help lift them up. Galatians 6:1 repeats this “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin you who are spiritual should restore him gently”.

But that means there is a great call on those who are spiritually strong. The leaders, even the leaders here, are given the burden of those under them. They should expect to have the wounded, exhausted, broken sheep come to their shepherds who will intercede for them and ask God to strengthen them. It’s as Paul said in Acts 6:4 – “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

You can see the impact that prayer has, look at the end of v.16: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” But we aren’t talking about someone saying a quick but powerful prayer and everything will be better. It’s not about being a faith healer. James is referring to continuous prayer. We need to be constantly going before the Lord asking for help. Jesus instructed us to do this in Luke 18 when he told the Parable of the Persistent Widow. In v.1 he says: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” This is not a Parable that Scripture is leaving to us to interpret. There are some that are kinda vague and we can take different ways, but here we are told what we should learn from this parable. Pray constantly.

James gives us one last example to drive home his point, an example that the Jewish believers who are reading this would be very familiar with: Elijah. To get the back story on Elijah, you have to go to 1 Kings 17-18. For the sake of time, basically the kings of Israel at the time of Elijah are doing some pretty bad things. They have turned as far from the Lord as they can, building idols to other gods and doing all sorts of nasty things. So God sends Elijah the prophet to rebuke them and try to bring them back to Himself. So Elijah prays and God stops the rains from falling on Israel for 3 ½ years after which the king at the time, Ahab, and Elijah meet on Mount Carmel and have a showdown of the prophets. All the false prophets the king could gather, 450 false prophets vs 1, Elijah. The contest: prepare a bull sacrifice on an alter, pray to your god and which ever god sends fire down to light the alter is the true God. False prophets go first, trying to pray to Baal all day long. Nothing. Elijah even taunts them telling them to pray louder. Nothing.

Elijah’s turn, he rebuilds an old alter to the Lord, puts his sacrifice on top, even douses the whole pile, wood and all, with water. 3 times they poured water on. Now at this point, it would take a real boy scout to light this fire, everything is soaked. But when Elijah prayed to God, he sent down fire that not only burned the sacrifice, but the wood, the rocks around it, the dirt under it, even the extra water that had overflowed from all the dumping. Gone. And it worked, because 1 Kings 18:39 describes what happened: “When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord – he is God! The Lord – he is God.” And after this, he prayed again to God and the rains came back to the land.

So you can see a real-life application of prayer. This is an example of the prayer that was being prayed, matching the will of God. Elijah prayed, God listened and did it. That won’t always happen. Jesus praying on the Mount of Olives. Jesus prayed 3 times for God to take the cup from him. What was the cup? The crucifixion he was about to face. Mark 14:32-42 describes this if you want to look into it some more. Now it wasn’t that Jesus was out of line with God’s will. He was praying that God’s will be done. Jesus knew what was coming, the pain he was about to endure, and it overwhelmed him. But Jesus was faithful to God’s will to the end.

I’m sure you all have a story we can share of a time when you were struggling and you prayed and you felt God answer your prayers. Let’s look at the last 2 verses of James. James is not necessarily talking about going out and evangelizing on the street corner. Remember who he is talking to, “My brothers,”. In v.19 he is indicating that there may be some people who claim to be Christians, who claim to know God, who are going to “wander from the truth”. And what is the truth? The Word of God.

See the original Greek word used for “save” in v.20 is the most common use of the word for salvation. It’s used 110 times in the New Testament, 93 of those times referring to being saved spiritually. I think James is using these verses as an encouragement to all of us to examine our faith. If we know someone who claims to have a saving faith, but is walking contrary to what Scripture says, we need to talk to them. The way of the world leads to death. We are all going to die. It’s a fact. It’s a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience of God in the Garden of Eden. But only when you put your faith in the Truth, and Jesus is the Truth according to John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”, it’s the only way you can be saved from an eternal death. And it’s only in putting your faith in Jesus that your sins, all of your sins, past present and future, are covered over in God’s eyes. He doesn’t see them anymore.

But the only way we are to turn a brother from wandering from the truth is to be solid on the truth. You can’t pull someone from the pool while you are balancing on the edge of the pool yourself. They’ll pull you in. You need to be firmly planted on the side. But even then, you will need some help to get them out of the pool. That’s where God comes in. God’s the only one who can save. We can paint them the best pictures of Christ, but Christ has to work in their lives. And what needs to happen for that person to cross the line, to accept Christ? He needs to pray. He needs to confess with his mouth and believe in his heart that he needs a savior. It’s the prayers to God that seals the deal. Prayer.

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On a personal note, I want to thank you all for following along as we studied the Book of James. It’s with a heavy, but confident, heart that I turn over the blog writing to Mike Shadle. As my wife and I embark on the next chapter of life that God has written for us, we look forward to seeing all the amazing things God is going to continue to do with this ministry. If you are in the Carroll County, Md area, I highly recommend you stop by some Tuesday. It truly is an amazing place to be. God Bless.

Click the ‘more’ to see more pics.

And a FYI- we are meeting at a different place next week. We will be at Tyler Brey’s house. For the address, look at the Next Meeting box on the right.

Well, this week he is focusing on the rich people, the wealthy land owners, and pretty much anyone who values money over anything else. But before we get too into this, let me put out there that James is not discouraging you from being rich. Remember in the Old Testament, Abraham was rich, had so much cattle and servants, and stuff that he needed his own land. But he still walked with God. And Solomon, even though he didn’t ask for money, God gave it to him anyways, more than he knew what to do with. And even the Israelites as they were waiting to enter the land God promised their forefathers. He promised to bless them in everything they did. They would be so wealthy that they would be lending money to other countries, but no country would lend money to them.

Now when you look at the New Testament, you find something a little different. It’s harder to find a time where Jesus tells us that it’s good to be rich. It’s easy to find the opposite. But I believe it’s because Jesus is more concerned with our attitudes towards money than money. He does say that God will take care of us. Jesus says in Luke 12:31 – “But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” ‘These things’ refers to the things of this world. Clothes, food, shelter. The things we need in this life. And you see this echoed in James as he is talking about the attitude you take towards seeking out riches.

So in this first part of the passage, what James is talking about can be broken up into 4 sections, or 4 sins that will cause judgment on these rich people:

Their wealth was uselessly hoarded
Their wealth was unjustly gained
Their wealth was self-indulgently spent
Their wealth was ruthlessly acquired

So in the first 2 points, James is jumping on them for the way they got their riches. James says they hoarded the wealth they had. They had no regard for the poor around them. V.3 says “You have hoarded wealth in the last days”. Those last days refer to the time between the 1^st coming of Christ and the 2^nd coming of Christ. And you can see a continuation of this today. It doesn’t matter that when Christ comes again, He will get rid of this world and everything in it and create a new heaven and new Earth. And if you don’t think that Christ will return in this lifetime, then you will die and leave your wealth behind. So what’s the point of hoarding it?

Scripture instead says that wealth and money should be used to further God’s kingdom. We are to use it to help the poor, provide for the widows, to help glorify God and to spread the Gospel. It’s not even our money to begin with. Everything is God’s and he chooses to loan it to us for a short time. So why do we get so possessive with it?

Moving on, what is one way James says they got their wealth? They held back the wages of their workers. This was a big no no back then. See back then, the poor worked for a day wage. They did a certain amount of work, and got paid for it at the end of the day. The next day they may work for the same person doing the same thing or they could go work for someone else who needed help. There was no steady income that we have today. So when someone didn’t pay them for their work for a day, that person had to go back to his family empty handed, which usually meant no food for that day. Deuteronomy 24:14-15 outlines the law for paying a man his wages. V.15 says: “Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it.”

But I don’t think James is just talking about people who stiff their workers. I think James is using this as a doorway into the various immoral and illegal ways people gathered their wealth back then. Just as we have the problem of the rich getting richer today, it was the case back then. The rich used their wealth to oppress the poorer people and gain more money from them. And this, God was against. He was very much against the way people sought after money in immoral ways because they put money before God. God was constantly sending prophets to the Old Testament cities to rebuke them:

Isaiah (10:1-4)             Amos (4:1-3, 8:4-10)
Job (24:2-4)                         Jeremiah (5:27-29)
Micah (2:1-5)             Malachi (3:5)

And when they didn’t listen to the prophets, He sent Jesus. And did they listen to Him? Nope. Has anything changed today? Nope. People still promise money to people and not pay them. Businesses withhold money and try to cheat out their workers so the owners can take home more for themselves.

In v.5, James mentions living in “luxury and self-indulgence”. Essentially this is talking about the desire once you have money to go after more. You start to live comfortably and then you find out you need more: have the nice house, now you need the nice car to go with it. Then you need to entertain yourselves in your nice house, so you get the 100” plasma flatscreen tv with surround sound speakers. Then, then, then. And it keeps going. Before long that’s all you think about, all you talk about, all you do, looking for the next biggest, best, most expensive. And what happens to God and his command to love and look out for others? Right out of your triple pained, weather insulated, bay window. You don’t care about any of that because you are lost in self-indulgence.

Fortunately for us, we have someone who’s been there and done that, and wrote a book about it: Solomon in Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 says:

“I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.  I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.  I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.  I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.  I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man.  I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.”

The entire book is how Solomon tried to gain everything on this earth and couldn’t be satisfied with any of it. So at the end of his book, he writes in Ecc. 12:13 – “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Maybe this is why movie stars and music artists who make millions of dollars commit suicide or can’t find satisfaction in this life: because they are seeking the wrong thing.

James moves on after going after the rich people by addressing the other side of the table, his brothers. If you remember waaay back in the beginning of the letter, James first addresses his bothers and tells them to be patient and here James comes full circle to say the same thing at the end of his letter. This time, he uses 3 examples that they would have understood back then to drive home his point: The farmer(v.7-9), the prophets(v.10), and Job(v.11-12).

His first point is that if you are not a patient person, farming is not a career choice you should look at. I’m pretty certain he is not talking about Farmville, but real life farming. Nothing grows overnight, except weeds. You plant something in the spring, and you have to wait until the fall to get anything from it. Also, you can be doing everything right, planting in the right time, using the right fertilizer, etc, and still have a bad crop. There are things out of your control that can ruin crops: weather, animals, other people. In the same way, we need to be patient in the coming of the Lord as James says in v.8. But I also challenge you to be patient in the work of the Lord. God is not bound by our timetables, but He is never late.

James is painting us as the spiritual farmer. We need to be patient as the spiritual fruit we plant in ourselves and in other people grows. But just as a farmer doesn’t just plant a seed and then sits back to let it grow, we need to be working continuously to help it grow. But just as the farmer is patient for the crop to grow, so should we be patient in the work we are doing will produce Godly fruit and that God will deliver us from whatever we are going through.

If we are struggling with something, James says to look at the prophets. They did what the Lord commanded them, which led them to go against the societal norm. They were persecuted by believers and non-believers alike for doing what God told them to do, many times to the point of death. Many times we think because we are suffering through something it is because of Satan, but often we are suffering because of our obedience to God. 2 Timothy 3:12 says: “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Why? Probably because it causes us to stand up to what the world says is right and go in the other direction. Because we can have a stronger testimony towards others for God’s glory if when we are suffering we can still praise the God above. If you don’t understand it, study the prophets. They went through it already so that we can learn from them. Romans 15:4 – “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope.”

And finally James talks about Job. Now I will admit Job is a long, tedious, and sometimes confusing book. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t full of nuggets of wisdom. But to break it down for you real quick:

Chapters 1-3 – Job’s distress. God allows Satan to take his wealth, family (except his wife, who was against him and told him to ‘curse God and die’ in chapter 2:9) and his health
Chapters 4-31 – Job’s defense. He debates with his 3 friends and answers their false accusations. They thought he had some sin in his life, but God had no cause to make Job suffer.
Chapters 38-42 – Job’s deliverance. First God humbles him, then honors him, and then gives him 2x as much as before as a reward for his perseverance.

See, God may have a larger purpose in mind instead of punishing us for a sin we committed. It’s a very self centered thought. God can bring himself glory through his Mercy to put us through something, even to the point of bring us closer to Him. At the end of Job, he knew God at a much deeper level then at the beginning of the book. It’s only in our hard times do we seek him out. Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Now verse 12 of James may not seem like it fits with the rest of the verses we just looked at but how many of you when you were in trouble with your parent tried to bargain your way out of your punishment? ‘If you let me do this or if you help me, I’ll never do that again!!’ How many of you have tried that with God? ‘God, if you help me pass this test, I’ll go to church every Sunday.’ Or ‘God, if you help me through this traffic, I’ll stop cursing’? We shouldn’t bargain with God, or with anyone else for that matter. Our actions should back up any pledge we make. If we say we are going to do something, we should do it without conditions.

Go to/finish college
get a degree
move here or there
get a nice job
find a husband/wife
buy a nice house
have some kids
get a couple of pets and so on

The only problem with that is that we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Not to be morbid or make you paranoid but there is no telling what will happen to you next year, next month, next week, tomorrow, when you leave this apartment. You could be driving to work next week and get in a car crash. You could be walking along the street and find a winning lottery ticket. You could be in a “serious dating” relationship now and have one night of weakness and get pregnant. Or you could fall asleep tonight and when you wake up in the morning, get a feeling from God that you cannot deny to sell everything you own and move to another country. The point James is trying to make is that it is not bad to plan, but it’s bad to plan without God.

In this passage, James lays out 3 different options or attitudes when it comes to God’s will for our lives:

We  can totally ignore it and make our own plans (v.13-14,16)
We can seek his plan but choose to ignore it (v.17)
We can joyfully listen and obey God’s will for our lives (v.15)

I’m sure you can all prick out that there are 2 wrong ways and 1 right way in the options I just listed. Going back to the outline for your life that I just mentioned a minute ago, that is something which would fall under the totally ignoring God’s plan for our lives. But it’s not your fault if you have a list with your life planned out. That’s what society teaches you to do. By the time you leave high school you need to have a pretty good idea about what you are going to do as a career. That’s why you go to college: to get that training. You decide to go to a specific college because they have a great undergrad program. That’s what I did. When I was in high school, I loved science. I still do. I was fascinated by the weather. I still am. That’s what I wanted to do with my life, study weather, be a research meteorologist (which is different than a tv weatherman, I think it’s cooler.) So looking at all that the world had to offer for meteorology schools and that’s what I thought I wanted to do. Fortunately for me, when I got to Oklahoma, the first class that all meteorology freshmen go through outlines the program, the job field, the opportunities, and the money. And a lot of people changed their majors after that class. I was 1 of them. I didn’t go far, I still enjoyed science, so I moved to the physics department. But the summer after my freshman year, I had enough of that and changed again into Art.

So where am I going with this? In less than 2 years after leaving my parents, leaving the east coast, taking the path for my life that I was confident that I wanted, I had gone so far off that I couldn’t even see it anymore. There were plenty of better art programs out there, plenty closer to my parents. Plenty cheaper. If only I had known that is what I wanted to do before I applied, I would have applied to a whole different list of schools. And this was all before I knew of God’s plan for my life. I didn’t need to seek it out. I had it under control. But in going out to Oklahoma, I met Megan, I found my passion for photography, and most importantly, God found me.

I don’t think there are any of us that are in the first area of this passage. I think we all pretty much desire to seek out God’s will for our lives. If one of you is in the first attitude, I recommend rethinking your plan. We can only look so far out. Pretty much as far as the present time. We have no concept of what the future holds. We can think we do, but we are just deceiving ourselves. We cannot know every angle of every moment that’s going to happen. So put it in God’s hands. He can and does know every angle. If you need a reminder on how short our lives really are, read through the Book of Job.

Job 7:6 – “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.”
v.7 – “Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath”
8:9 – “our days on earth are but a shadow”
9:25-26 – “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy…like eagles swooping down on their prey.”
14:1 – “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”
And even Proverbs 27:1 – “do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth”
James 4:14 words it as “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
Jesus describes this idea in the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:16-21.

Do you guys see what is wrong with the scenario that James describes in v.13? The person saying they will do all this sounds like they are in control. They are in control of when they are leaving, where they will go, how long they will stay, and what they will do while they are their. The only way to share that with anyone is to boast about it. ‘Look at me. Here’s what I am going to do.’ That’s why James scolds them with the downer of how short our lives are.

But let’s fast forward now to the end of the passage. In v.17 James makes a statement that can be applied to pretty much any situation: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” It’s easy to take this passage and apply it to any of God’s commands, from the 10 Commandments, to the advice that Jesus gave in any of the Gospels. But James is using it in a very specific way here, in relation to the previous verses. See, the words James uses to start this section, “Now listen” in the Greek is more like “LISTEN UP!!” James uses it again in Chapter 5 as we will look at next week. Between the ‘listen up’ and the end ‘if you know but don’t do it’ he is not letting anyone off the hook for anything. He got their attention, explained it to them, and then said, now you have no excuse for not listening to God.

Think about what it means to know God’s will, but to choose not to follow it. Does this sound like anyone we know of in the Bible? Right, Jonah. Jonah knew what God wanted him to do, and said ‘Nope, sorry. I’m not doing that.’ Now I pray that none of us have never acted as deliberately as Jonah did. But we all may have had a little Jonah in us. Have you every sought out what God wants for a particular area of our life, like our career or where we should live, but we don’t want to know what he thinks about our relationship with our girlfriend/boyfriend? We say “I have that under control, but I don’t know what to do about my job. Give me guidance Lord.” God fix this over here, but not this over here.

Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. To sum it up, essentially you are being a practical atheist. You are living as if God doesn’t exist and therefore has no control over your whole life, or a particular aspect of it. He controls the universe and every thing in it except what I choose to do with my body. He doesn’t control that. But it may not be as overt as that. Going back to v.17, there are actually 2 ways we can sin: the sin of commission, meaning when we commit a sin, or of omission or when we our failure to act results in sin, to disobey God. Back in Luke 12:47, Jesus warns us against these types of sin. “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows.” Jesus continues in the next verse to say that the sin of omission, to know God’s will and to choose to disobey, is worse than not knowing and doing wrong. “But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.”(v.48) See the difference: many blows(47) vs few blows(48).

You may think that is harsh, but God wants us to understand his will. Ephesians 5:17 “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Paul writes it again in Colossians 1:9 “we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” How do we know what God’s will is? How can we seek it out? Is it really as easy as James says “Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”” (v.15) It’s not so much just saying it, but thinking it. No matter what your plans are, including God in them. Whether long term or short term, leaving it open for God to step in and change them. You may wake up tomorrow and say, I’m going to shower, have breakfast, then head to work. You can so set to do that you walk right past the person in the street who is crying and in need of someone to talk to. But to take time to talk to them will make you late for work. Will throw off your schedule. I’m just as guilty. I’m talking of myself right now.

But in terms of the bigger things, the larger scale plans like who to marry, where to live, what job to do, how can we know God’s will, his desire for us? If you are in a place right now where you are asking God to speak to you about an aspect of your life, then you need to make sure you are doing the things He has commanded you to do. You may not get a response right away that says: Get up and go to Africa. You may. I don’t presume to know God’s methods. But I do know that He desires to meet with us on a daily basis. He desires that we read His Word. That we pray with Him regularly. That we follow His Commandments. And if you start by listening to Him on those small things, then He can start to speak to us regarding the bigger things.

6 months ago, when I started to seek out God’s will for my life, and for our family, Pete gave me some advice that he received from a close friend a long time ago before becoming youth pastor, and I’ll admit, it took me a while to apply, but when I did, things started to get a lot clearer. He told me ‘if you are trying to figure out what God wants with you, where you should work or live, then you should be closer to God than you have ever been.’

If we desire to please God and for Him to do great things through us, which we should all desire, then we need to be ready to do those things. If our prayer life is nonexistent, then how can God use us to prayer with someone who is struggling and on the brink of accepting Christ? Or if we are unfamiliar with Scripture because we don’t really read it too often, then how can we effectively share the Gospel with someone who is struggling with their life? It’s amazing, and I am speaking from experience, when you focus on Him, and being close to Him, then before you know it the things of this world are falling into place.

Before we went out to Missouri, I was honestly 50/50 in going vs staying. When we went out, we went out with the mindset of figuring out which option would please God. There were perks and drawbacks from each choice, to stay or to go, but in the end, we desired to please God and we felt that it would please Him more out there. We felt that God wanted to be out there and that we were the ones to bring Him there. Could He do it without us? Yes. If we chose to stay here, He would work through someone else to bring Him glory. But instead of being like Jonah and running from what God called us to do, we wanted to be like Isaiah who when he was called in Isaiah 6:8 – “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Are you like Isaiah? Will you stand up and say ‘Here am I’ when He calls you? Or are you too busy setting up your own life that you miss the call? And when you do hear it, say ‘no thanks. I’m good.’

Our conflict with others
Our conflict with ourselves
Our conflict with God

Just like last week, James starts out this section with a question: v1 – “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” Remember that he is writing this letter to the early church, so he’s asking this of believers. Since sin entered into the world, there has been fighting among people who say they know God. Beginning with Cain and Able in Genesis 4 then Lot and Abraham in Genesis 13. Even when Jesus was on the earth, there was division among believers. The disciples argued over who was the greatest in the kingdom as described in Luke 9:46-48 and in Mark 10 which you looked at in your groups. And especially in the early church, like a couple of weeks ago when James was talking about the people who wanted to become teachers at the beginning of Chapter 3 and as we will see here in Chapter 4. Paul was constantly playing referee in the early churches he started which you can read about in his letters to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 6:1-8, 14:23-40), Ephesians (Eph. 4:1-16), Galatians (Gal. 5:15), and Philippians (Phil. 4:1-3).

And don’t think that Paul and James were able to straighten everyone out. The church has always had division within in. More often than not, it resulted in blood shed. When the Catholic church split from the Protestant church, the Crusades, even the division between Calvinists and Armenians. It seems like when ever we as Christians come across someone with different theological beliefs than us, especially a Christian brother or sister, we can’t help but let things get heated. And you know what, the world notices. They notice when we go after each other. They hear us talk about loving others as yourself, hear us telling them to love their enemies, but then they see us fight with each other. Kinda ruins our testimony, don’t you think?

It’s no wonder that Jesus prayed for us right before he was arrested as it was recorded in John 17:21 – “that all of them (believers in Christ) may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” His desire was that we may as Jesus is with God, unified, holy, without blemish. But we aren’t like that. Fortunately, so we can try to change, James reveals why in v.2 – “Don’t they (our fights) come from your desires that battle within you?” He says, rather bluntly, ‘don’t your fights with other people come from your battle with yourself?’ which is just repeating what we looked at last week about the war in our hearts: James 3:16- “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

If we are being honest with ourselves when we get into a fight with someone else, it’s usually because we want to be right. We want to be right, or better, we want to one up the other person. It’s our desire to make ourselves look good. And this isn’t just restricted to our theological arguments, it can happen with our arguments with our spouse, friends, or family. It’s about getting our point across, about obtaining something that we don’t have. I do it too. There are times when I get frustrated because I can’t get Megan to see what I’m talking about, for the sole reason so that I can be right.  How many times do you compare stories with someone? They are telling you about an awesome trip they went on and you interject with your story of what you did and how awesome it was? Or with church. Someone’s sharing with you what their church is like, how many mission trips they go on, how their preacher is, what kind of bible studies they a part of and instead of being encouraged with them, you try to one up them with your church? You are like:

‘yeah, my church is better. Our preacher is awesome. We do missions every week. Yeah, ton’s of people have come to Christ. Dozens each week. We follow what the Bible says. We don’t belong to any religion. Actually ours is the best way.’

It’s all about me, me, me. And James says that the selfishness carries over into your prayer life too. v.3 – “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” When you come to God with a selfish request, when you ask God to help you do something for yourself, why should God listen to you? Don’t get me wrong, God desires to bless us. He wants to heap blessings onto us. But only when we obey his Commands will he do so. When we listen to him, will he listen to us.

Next James throws out a term that we don’t really use anymore. V.4 he calls us “adulterous people”. We don’t really call anyone by that anymore. We usually say ‘someone cheated on so and so’, or ‘they hooked up with.’ But James calls it like it is. Essentially he is saying that when we cheat on God with the world, we are showing hatred towards God. See, we are called the bridegroom of Christ. Romans 7:4 says “you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead…” See, we belong to Christ. He is very possessive of us, that’s why God is described as a jealous God. He is jealous for us. And I for one don’t think it’s an outlandish request. It’s kind of like the boyfriend who tells his girlfriend that he doesn’t want her to go out with another man, or the wife that says she doesn’t want her husband to sleep with another woman. Do we call them extreme, unreasonable? No, because that’s the definition of a marriage. It’s exclusive. So should our relationship with God.

James says that we should “submit ourselves, then, to God” v.7. It echoes what Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians when he said that the “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord… Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” (Eph. 5:22,24) We should flee, or resist, the devil because we know that we cannot follow both the devil, or the god of this world, and the God of heaven.  We need to cleanse ourselves of the things of this world, not just physically, by removing sinful things, but with our emotions.

I think it’s interesting the choice of words James uses in v.9 when he says: “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.” What do you think he is talking about here? Are we supposed to walk around with frowns on our faces? No, I think he is talking about our acceptance of sin, which he tells us to wash away in the verse before. It’s incredible how accepted sin is in today’s society. How many jokes we cannot repeat because of the subject, or the movies/songs/tv shows that glorify extramarital sex, drinking, violence, etc.  Even taking the Lord’s name in vain is uttered subconsciously by most people today. See, it’s easy for someone to submit themselves outwardly to God, go to church, be nice to people, even say the right things. But James is talking about a deeper submission. We need to submit our being to him. Just as we need to turn our heart and such our tongue over to Him, we need to draw close to him spiritually, emotionally, and with our minds. Only then will we fill ourselves so the devil can’t get in. I’m not saying he won’t try, but the closer we are to God, the harder it will be for the devil.

James sums up this passage by going back to the beginning and talking about our battle with other people. We love to judge people. Whether it’s judging them based on what they are wearing or how they act or who they hang out with, what they drive, or how they live their life. We life to pass judgment in order to make ourselves feel better. We say ‘well I’m not as bad as that person’ or ‘at least I don’t dress like them’. And we turn it back onto ourselves again. Make it about us. We are walking around with a magnifying glass, examining the specks in everyone else’s eye, with the plank sticking out of ours.

I remember one of the early sermons of Tim’s when he was preaching on Luke 6:41. It’s neat to see Tim getting towards the end of Luke on Sunday because he’s been in Luke since before we got to UBC 3 years ago. Granted he took some time to go through Exodus and the Tabernacle and that took a little while. But I remember one of the first times hearing him preach he was talking about Luke 6 when it says “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” Tim stood on the stage with an 6 foot long two by four and held it to his head and walked around the stage. I was like, ‘who is this guy?’ at the time, but I still remember the sermon to this day so it was affective.

So I don’t think I need to get too much into it. We already talked about back in James 2:12 about judging other people because we ourselves will be judged one day. We shouldn’t think of ourselves as better then anyone else because when we do that, we are judging them. Instead we should encourage and love them for their differences. If they are a believer, we should lift them up as a brother in Christ, praise their accomplishments and accept the differences. If they are an unbeliever, then we should accept them as God’s creation in need of a Savior and love on them. Either way, judgment and selfish attitudes don’t fit into God’s plan.

If you find yourself praying and not getting an answer from God, either it’s not his will to give you an answer, and you need to be ok with that, or you need to check your motives for praying. Either way, are you praying to get glory for yourself or for God? If it’s for ourselves, we need to step down off the pedestal we’ve climbed on and put God back up on it.

So there you go. Knowing what we know now, we can actually go back to James’ question and reword it. Instead of “Who is wise and understanding among you?” we can reword it “Who among you has fear of the Lord and knowledge of the Holy One?” You see, having wisdom is knowing that there is something bigger than you. That’s where the humility comes from that James refers to in the second part of v.13. You don’t have all the answers and don’t have to prove anything to anyone. When you start to think that you know everything and you try to prove it to everyone, odds are you are doing it for the recognition.

Now we need to make sure we make the distinction between having knowledge and having wisdom. Wisdom is knowing how to use the knowledge you have. It’s possessing good judgment and responding sensibly to a certain situation. I knew people when I was in college, and you may know some people like this, who were smart, real smart. They got all A’s on the tests, could do their homework in no time, could build a working computer with nothing but toothpicks and a pack of gum. But I would never trust them with my money. They didn’t know how to handle themselves in social situations. They were book smart but didn’t know how to use it properly.

So you can imagine as the First Century churches are reading this letter out loud, they get to this question, ‘who is wise’ and you can imagine some people getting ready to stand up and answer ‘yes’. Or you yourself may be doing the same thing, asking yourself if this applies to you and you start to come up with reasons why you are wise. But then James throws a curve ball at you in the second half of that verse. He says “Let him show it by his good life,” The actual Greek phrase for that part of the verse is a lot more direct. It can more accurately be translated: ‘Show me’. He’s saying don’t tell me why you are wise, show me.

So James, after knocking us off of whatever pedestal we have climbed up on, will tell us that we can have 1 of 2 kinds of wisdom: one that comes from God and one that doesn’t. And in the rest of this chapter, James is going to unpack those 2 kinds and explain to us the characteristics and the fruit of each type of wisdom. First off, James talks about an earthly wisdom.

Have any of you gone into a situation where someone else was doing something and you said to yourself ‘I can do that, and better than he can. I should be there’? Yeah, I’m right there. I’ve done it. It’s easy to do. It’s easy to think that you are all that. But James clears something up for us when we are thinking like that. He says that if you harbor envy, which is what that is, “envy and selfish ambition in your hearts” then you are wise in the way of the world, not of God. Notice the 3 things that James describes the wisdom that is not of God in v.15: “earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.”

Now why do you think James is pulling these 3 adjectives out of his hat to describe the wisdom that is not of God? Let me use these words instead: worldly, fleshly, and devilish. What about now? Can you see where James is going with this? These are 3 things that as a believer, we try not to embrace. They are opposite of a true believer and therefore opposite of God. Look around you. What does this world promote? It’s all about what you can see now. Don’t worry about what’s to come. Just worry about now. And while you are dealing in the now, don’t forget about you. The flesh. ‘Have it your way’, ‘Do your own thing’ and ‘Look out for numero uno’. Forget everyone else. Make yourself happy. Satisfy your urges. And what does Satan promise you? He promises that if you immerse yourself in the world, you can become wise. Experience things and learn from it. Trial and error. But don’t you see that the tricks Satan plays with us today are the same tricks he has always played. Look back at the beginning of the world in the Garden of Eden with Eve: Satan said that by eating of the fruit she would gain knowledge and be like God. In the end it comes down to our selfish desire to be a god.

That’s why in v.16, James describes the effect of the earthly wisdom: “you find disorder and every evil practice.” That phrase “every evil thing” is the broadest possible term James could use to say that there are all sorts of bad things that come from living with envy and selfish ambition in your hearts. Essentially nothing of any ultimate good can come from human wisdom. It doesn’t see very far out from ourselves.

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, he spoke extensively about having this kind of wisdom. I recommend you take a minute and read through 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (you can read it here). Does this apply to any of you? Was there anything that Paul said that stood out to you?

I know for me personally, it describes how I was before becoming a believer to a “T”. I thought I knew everything. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what the world was like and how to navigate through it. And it wasn’t until every single one of my beliefs were proven wrong that I realized I knew nothing. It wasn’t until I put aside my beliefs, my wisdom that I found that there was something better out there. There was something that had all the answers to life’s questions. It was Jesus. We can all agree that Jesus is loving, peaceful, holy, full of mercy, impartial, caring of others, humble, not self-seeking, and that there is no evil in Him? Then it would only make sense that what comes from Him, wisdom that comes from Him, are all those things too. James describes all those qualities in v.17.

Earlier I mentioned Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” The reason I want to go back to this is because of the implications of this passage. Before I became a believer, I was a very proud person. Scratch that, up until last week I was a proud person. Once I became a believer I realized I didn’t know everything, but I still thought I could do anything, and inside I envied people who were doing things that I thought I could do. But as I sat down to look through this passage, I realized that I needed to start thinking like there is something bigger than me. I need to be living my life with a fear of the Lord. And that’s where the wisdom comes in. If you think you are wise, you aren’t. But if you strive to live out these qualities, the wisdom part will come. If you strive to gain wisdom in order to get these qualities, then you are being selfish and it’s not true wisdom.

If you want a more detailed explanation, check out the first 2 chapters of 1 Corinthians, where Paul not only talks about the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom of God. In 1 Corinthians 2:13 Paul writes: “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” Paul writes it again in his letter to the Colossians in Colossians 2:2-3: “so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Don’t you see how you can become a truly wise person? Strive to know Christ. Strive to be like Christ.

I’m not sure if you’ve made this connection, I didn’t, but the qualities that James describes here echo very closely Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount as written in Matthew 5-6. Let’s compare. (Click here to open Matthew 5 in a new window) Don’t forget what we talked about when we started the Book of James. While James didn’t believe in Jesus until after his Resurrection, James was there for parts of Jesus’ ministry. And as we see time and again in his letter here, when he was there, he was listening. The qualities James lists here in v.17:

peace-loving – Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers”

considerate(or in the Greek, gentle or meek) – v.5 “Blessed are the meek”

submissive – v.3 “Blesses are the poor in spirit”
Now you may be wondering how I could connect “poor in spirit” with “submissive”. Think about what it means to be poor in spirit: If you are poor, have nothing to be boast about. You desire to be filled with the spirit. As one who is submissive, you are teachable, compliant, not stubborn. You are able to be rebuked, to accept criticism and to comply with what is asked of you. Those who are “poor in spirit” are willing to do all that God asks them to do, and as such, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

full of mercy – v.7 “Blesses are the merciful”
The mercy God gave us we should pass on to others.

good fruit – v.6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”
We talked all about being righteous back in James 2:14

Impartial –
Well, this is not mentioned in a specific verse by Jesus, but is a common theme among all of his verses. God does not waver in his will and has no indecisiveness in Him.

Sincere (or without hypocrisy) – 6:2, 5, 16, 7:5
Not just mentioned once, but 4 times in His Sermon and mentioned many times afterwards in direction of the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders.

If you are still unclear on how to gain wisdom that is of God, let me leave you with 2 people from Scripture that you can study their lives: from the Old Testament, Moses and from the New Testament, Jesus. Neither of them desired to be popular among their people, nor desired to gain power but both of them constantly pointed others towards God for everything. Abraham, who we talked about 2 weeks ago, and Paul are 2 other examples. And if you are still wondering how you can have wisdom in your life, look no further than 2 chapters earlier in James. James 1:5 says “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him”.

We will see next time that the best way to resist Satan, and the wisdom of this world, is to submit yourselves to God through and through. Head to toe. James 4:8 says “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” I encourage all of you this week to examine yourselves, if you haven’t been already. What are your motives? Why do you do the things that you do? The things that you say? Do you consider yourself a wise person? What are your actions saying? I hope that this week you can take time out of your busy schedules to spend time with God. Draw near to Him and next week we will share what happens when we do that.

I want to correct something that I said last week. When we were looking at Rahab, I set the scene with how Joshua secretly sent 2 spies into Canaan to check it out before they went in to take it over. I incorrectly told you that when Moses send his people in that it was in a similar fashion and may have given the impression to you all that God might not have been pleased with that. Forrest was correct in saying Moses was kept out of Canaan because of how he acted by bringing water from the rock. It wasn’t the action of striking the rock but the fact that before doing so, he did not honor God in front of the Israelite’s and took some of the glory for himself that he was kept from the promised land. And as far as sending in the spies, in my daily reading this morning God had me in Numbers reading about Moses sending his people into Canaan to take a look. Numbers 13:3 “So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out…” So I want to correct what I said last week and make sure you understood things properly.

James 3:1
¹Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. ²We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.³When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.⁷All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, ⁸but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.⁹With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. ¹¹Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? ¹²My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

And, in God’s ever teaching and ever loving nature, he has given me a great introduction into today’s passage. As you read in James 3:1 James is talking about being a teacher. See back then, being a Rabbi was something a lot of people aspired to. There was a lot of prestige that came from that position, and as we can see in the Gospels, many of the Pharisees couldn’t handle the position without getting prideful. They got the best seats in the house, had crowds of people following them around. Wore bright colored clothes and demanded attention where ever they went. Even after Jesus’ ascension, that didn’t change.

As the new church was being formed, and as James and Paul and the apostles were looking for leaders in the churches they were forming all over the countryside, there was no seminary school for them to go to. There wasn’t much formal training and as a result people were desiring to become leaders because of the status and benefits that they associated with it because of the Pharisees. And here James is speaking directly to those people. He is calling them out. But notice that James is including himself. He is indicating that he is just as susceptible to sin as the next person. And that calling that he made back then is just as relevant today. Look at those who call themselves pastors or teachers of the Word. When they stumble in their walk, and they do stumble, v.2: “We all stumble in many ways.”, then how much more are they ridiculed and judged then if any of us were to sin?

Now James isn’t discouraging people from becoming teachers. It is a noble thing to be a teacher. 1 Timothy 3:1: “If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer(or teacher), he desires a noble task.” I must admit there is an inner joy from the Holy Spirit that comes from examining God’s Word for the purpose of sharing it with all of you. And I don’t get that from anything else. That’s why I would like to do this full time. But I don’t take it lightly because I know how easily it can be to lead you all astray in your walk with God. If I don’t step aside and let God lead this meeting, then the things I say will probably be wrong, or at the very least, not correct. Why? Because Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I am a sinful creature and cannot talk about a Holy God accurately without the help of God. And you know what scares me more than being wrong?

The judgment of God that comes from leading someone away from God. It is so important that people understand it, that 3 of the 4 gospel writers record Jesus talking about it. Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42 and Luke 17:2 all say the same thing just slightly different. I’m going to read from Matthew 18:6 because I think he took it as far as it was meant to be taken: “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” So, after hearing that, how many of you want to become a teacher? Well, you should all raise your hands because while Jesus tells us what happens if you lead a believer to sin, he does encourage us all to teach in the Great Commission, also recorded by Matthew in Matthew 28:19-20: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and TEACHING them to obey everything I have commanded you….”(Emphasis mine) But keep in mind you will be held to a “stricter judgment” (v.1)

How many of you like to talk? Talk a lot? How often has your mouth got you into trouble? Has anybody experienced your mouth talking faster than your brain? Like you start to say 1 thing and then your filter kicks in and you stop yourself mid sentence or you try to finish the sentence in another direction? See, what James is talking about here is nothing new to us. Not today, nor in the New Testament church, nor in his letter. If you remember back in Chapter 1:19 we looked at being slow to speak and quick to listen. Well, the mouth is actually a central theme of James’ whole letter as he mentions it at least 1 time in every chapter: 1:19, 26… 2:12… 3:5, 6(twice), 8… 4:11… 5:12

But this time, James uses some colorful illustrations to make his points. Not only here, but all through Scripture you read about the tongue being used for evil.

Job 5, 15, 20, 41
Psalm 5, 10, 34, 39, 52, 50
most of Proverbs: 6, 17, 26, 28 (to name a few)
Isaiah 6, 59; Jeremiah 9; Micah 6; Romans 3, 1 Peter 3.

So in James’ examples here, we will look at 4 different types of examples relating to our mouths. It’s ability to control, to corrupt, our battle with it, and what flows from it. I don’t want to spend too much time on each one because James is being pretty straight forward. Who of you have ever ridden a horse before? I must admit the only time I’ve ridden a horse was at the carnival and it was attached to a pole with a leash and all I did was ride around in a circle. It was controlled by the harness and the bit in it’s mouth. As much as it wanted to run free and as much as I wanted to do the same like the cowboys in the movies, it couldn’t because it’s head was controlled. The bit in it’s mouth prevented the head from turning in the direction other than what the carnival wanted it to: a circle.

Same thing with a sail boat. Who has been sailing before? You know how you steer the boat? With the rudder. And you all know that the rudder of a ship is a lot smaller than the ship itself, but despite its size, it controls the ship. Even today, the massive cargo ships that are floating on the ocean right now, carrying thousands of tons of stuff across the sea are being controlled by rudders that are a fraction of its size.

So, back on the text. Fire. Starts small. A spark or a match. And then it feeds on itself. If there is enough combustible material, a small spark can take down an entire forest. Look at all of the forest fires that have been happening in California the past couple of years. Millions of acres of trees burned. Houses and building burned. Billions of $ lost all because of a small cigarette or match or campfire. It’s the same thing with words from our mouth. Our words can spread through a group of people like wildfire. We call it gossip. As long as there are people willing to spread it, to be that combustible material, then the gossip will spread. And even the destructive power of fire can be matched with words. Our words can ruin a friendship, break up a marriage, tear down a congregation, lose a job, send people to hell. We all have relationships that we look back on and say to ourselves: ‘if I didn’t say this’ or ‘if I only said this’. Warren Wiersbe said “Time doesn’t correct the sins of the tongue.”

But look at v.7-8. James brings up an interesting point here about taming the tongue. He says that we have tamed every animal on the earth, but the tongue, no man can tame. So how can it be controlled? Can it? James says “It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”(v.8)  “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”(v.10) But just as scripture is full of passages that talk about the evil of our mouths, there are many that talk about how our mouths can be used for good. Psalms 35, 37, 39; Malachi 2, Colossians, and I like what it says in Isaiah 50:4: “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.” Isaiah submitted his mouth to God. Remember back in the beginning of Isaiah 6 when God called him to the ministry? When he was called he fell down and cried “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips.” And God cleaned his lips for him with the coals. That was God’s cleaning.

Does that mean that we have to burn our lips with coals? No. Today, we have something better. More painful, but better. Where do the things that come out of our mouths come from? Where do they originate? Jesus tells us in Matthew 15:18 “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart…” So instead of us cleaning our mouths, we need to clean our hearts. And we already talked about how we do that. Anyone? By having the Holy Spirit dwell inside of us. That’s why James is calling us to stop spewing forth bitter water and fresh water. We are like Peter in the New Testament. In Matthew 16:16 he confessed with his mouth that “You (Jesus) are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And then 10 chapters later, in Matthew 26:74 “he began to call down curses on himself and swore to them, ‘I don’t know the man!(Jesus)” See just as our mouths can destroy, they can also build up. James’ example of fire I think is perfect because just as it can destroy, it can also be used for good. Look at this pellet stove. It’s giving off heat to keep us all warm. Cars use fire to move. Trains to pull thousands of tons of cargo across the country. It’s used to see. To cook. To refine, or to make stronger or more pure, as in gold or steel.

As much as this passage is rebuking us for talking evil, which we all do, it is an encouragement for us to use our mouths for good. Proverbs 13:14 says: “The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.” See we all have been given the good news of Jesus Christ and we are called to share that with everyone. Just as we can send people to hell by condemning them, we can help them get to heaven by sharing the Gospel with them. If we let the Holy Spirit talk for us, then only fresh water comes out. But we need to be watching what we say. We need to make sure our filters are in place at all times, especially when we are at our most vulnerable. Whether we are tired or angry, at work or at Panera, with our family or with our friends, we need to make sure that the words we say honor God and not Satan. We looked at 2 weeks ago how we will be judged by our words. Matthew 12:36-37: But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.

If we are supposed to be followers of Christ, then we should bear the appropriate fruit. James ends this passage with a question: “Can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” If we are walking with God, we will bear Christ’s fruit. If we are walking in the world, then our sinful nature bears sinful fruit.

The sinner is saved by faith (Eph 2:8-9)
The believer must walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7)
With out faith it’s impossible to please God (Heb 11:6)
Anything we do apart from faith is sin (Rom. 14:23)

But what is faith? Before we start throwing that term around like it’s a baseball, what do we mean when we say you need to have faith?

Hebrews 11:1 says that “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” So it’s putting our trust in something that we cannot actually see. When we say faith in God, it means trusting that God, who we cannot actually see, is there. And if he is there, then we can trust the promises He makes: the promises of eternal life, salvation, sin, and most importantly His Son, Jesus Christ.

Now in this part of the letter, James is throwing around the term faith a whole lot. 11 times in 12 verses. But each one of those 11 times do not mean the same thing. We can actually break them up to 3 types of faith, only 1 of which is the good type of faith, a saving faith:

Dead Faith – v.14-17
Demonic Faith – v.18-19
Dynamic Faith – v.20:26

Let’s look at the first kind of faith: dead faith. A person who has this kind of faith doesn’t produce fruit. Their walk doesn’t match their talk. Last week we talked about giving lip service to someone. Talking a whole lot about their religion, but not backing it up with action. Talking the talk but not walking the walk. The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10(:25-37) is a prime example of this dead faith. The priest and the Levite walked right past the man who had been beaten up by robbers. They should have been the first on the scene to help him out, but they crossed to the other side of the road to get past him.

But what other picture do we get from this parable? Do the priest and Levite know they have dead faith? No, they think their faith is righteous. It’s solid. Right there. They made sure everyone saw it. But it wasn’t. They talked about it, made everyone else talk about it, but their actions didn’t show it. It was a great show. Continuing in the James’ tradition, he gives us an extreme example in v.15: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” So you know someone who’s in need of something, and all you say is “I hope you get it”. Does that help them? What about the promise to pray for that person? Someone is in need of something: comfort, a listening ear, food, money, clothing, whatever and all you tell them is “I will pray for you.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that prayer is useless. Sometimes it’s the most powerful thing we can do for someone, to lift them up to God. But if you are standing there with 2 coats on telling someone who is cold that you will pray that they will get a coat, does that seem right? Or that you will pray for someone to help council your friend who is hurting as you are heading home to spend all evening in front of the tv when you can do that very thing for them? That’s what James is talking about here. How do I know that? Am I pulling this out of thin air, taking scripture too far? Look at the next verse, v.17: “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” John puts it another way when he says in his First letter: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 john 3:18.

The second type of faith that James mentions is demonic faith. He drives this point home in v.19 when he says “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” It’s one thing to believe in the Bible. You can believe it’s true. Satan believes in the Bible. His demons believed in God, they believed in the deity of Christ, they bore witness to His sonship (Mark 3:11-12), believed in existence of place of punishment (Luke 8:31), recognized Jesus as the Judge (Mark 5:1-13). Mark 5 tells of the man with the legion of evil spirits who Jesus took out of the man and allowed them to go into the herd of pigs. The demons in the man pleaded with Jesus to not torture them. They knew who they were dealing with.

You can see a difference between those with dead faith and those with the demonic faith. The man with the dead faith was touched to his intellect. He knew in his mind that God was real. He thought it through, reasoned it out, and knew in his head what he had to do. But his heart was still empty of the Truth. The demons knew in their minds who Jesus was and had knowledge of God and of Scriptures. They even went as far as to let their emotions be open to the Truth. They were afraid of Jesus when He walked by. But it takes more than that. You can be enlightened in the mind and the heart but if your faith doesn’t involve a life change, it’s not a saving faith.

And that’s where we come to the last type of faith. The dynamic faith. It is a saving faith. It’s not only knowing the Truth and letting it touch your emotions, but it’s letting it dictate your will. It combines all 3 and all 3 work together. Your mind understands the truth, your heart desires the truth, and your will acts upon the truth. That’s a dynamic faith. It’s centered around the Word of God. Back in James 1:18, we talked about being born through the word of truth, and in 1:21 we talked about accepting the word which saves us. Now James will give us an illustration of how this type of faith can play out in our lives. He uses 2 well known Biblical figures to illustrate his point: Abraham and Rahab. But as usual 2 extremes.

Let’s compare and contrast. What do you know about Abraham? Jew, Godly man, friend of God, counted as righteous. What about Rahab? Gentile, sinful woman, a prostitute, lived in Canaan and was part of the people who God considered enemies of Israel, did not walk with God. But despite all the differences, James puts them together because they both exercised a saving faith in God.

In order to fully understand what James is talking about here, we need to go back to the Old Testament. Let’s take a quick look at Genesis 15:1-6 (click here to view passage) and look at when Abraham’s put his trust in God. Someone please read v.1-6. Good. See Abraham knew of the Lord before hand. Had heard from the Lord. God had directed him to leave his country and head towards Canaan. But there was something that Abraham wanted that he didn’t think God was ever going to give him: a son. That’s what he desired. And when Abraham went to God with that request, it was His reply, God’s reply, that gave Abraham faith. He showed him the stars as an illustration of what God was going to do for him.

Paul, in Romans 4, writes a beautiful commentary on the act of Abraham becoming righteous before God. I encourage you all to read it on your own at some point to get a better understanding of being justified through faith alone. You can read it here. But now I want you to realize that it was this single act of faith that made Abraham righteous in God’s eyes. To be justified isn’t a process, it’s a single act. Romans 4:25: “He(Christ) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” The process comes in our living out that faith.

Going back to Abraham, we see later on in Genesis 22 (click to view) his faith being tested. I’ve heard it said that in Genesis 15, Abraham was justified before God, but it was in Genesis 22 that he was justified before man. Faith in God acted out for man. When God finally gave him a son, God tested Abraham’s heart to see if it was still righteous. V. 2 says: “Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Ouch. God said “take your son, your only son” driving home the point of who he was talking about and then said “whom you love”. How many of us would do what Abraham did? Give up what you’ve been praying so hard for, only to have God ask for it back? Notice he didn’t question God, plead with him, or anything like that. Scripture only says that the next day he got up and went out. Throughout the story we see Abraham trusting that God will provide, v.5 when Abraham says to his servants: “We will worship and then we will come back” and to his son in v.8 “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering”. This shows the faith that Abraham had because in his lowest moment, his actions backed up his faith. He wasn’t perfect however. He let his faith in God waiver when he slept with Hagar and bore Ishmael, who became the Arab people. And when he and Sarah were going through other countries, he told Sarah to pretend to be his sister. But it was that act on the mountain that showed why God had chosen Abraham to be the father of the nations. He set the example.

Now let’s take a look at Rahab. To see her story, we need to turn to Joshua 2 (click to view).  Here we find that Joshua, who had just taken over the Israelites after Moses died, is getting ready to enter Canaan. But instead of trusting in the Lord like Moses did, he wants to know what he is up against. So he secretly sends 2 spies into the land to scope it out. And they get found out and have to hide in an inn at the border. Enter Rahab. She knew of the Israelites, knew what the Lord did for them, and how her land was going to be taken over. V. 9 we see her talking to the spies: “I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.” We see her knowledge of the Lord, notice she doesn’t say “your Lord”, her emotions melting in fear,  and her willingness to betray her country and her king to help them.

Do you know how God rewarded her faith and her action? We see in Joshua 6:25 that Joshua spared Rahab and her family from destruction. Did God do anything else for Rahab for the faith that she showed? The Book of Joshua doesn’t say so, but we see it in Matthew 1:5 in the genealogy of Jesus where Rahab was listed as the mother of Obed, who was the father of Jesse who was the father of David. God placed her in the royal line as the great-grandmother of David, a descendant of Jesus. What an honor.

Now I don’t want you to walk away from here frustrated that you aren’t doing enough good works and you need to go out and do stuff. And I really don’t want you to leave here questioning your faith because you aren’t doing enough works. My purpose to you all tonight is to show you that if you have a genuine faith, the works should flow out of you. Tonight should inspire an examination of your faith through the fruit you are bearing. If it is hard for you to be nice to people, to help them when they are in need, then maybe you need to reevaluate things. 2 Corinthians 13:5a: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith: test yourselves.” Theologian Warren Wiersbe presented several questions you can ask yourself to determine if Satan has deceived you, because remember that Satan is the father of lies and what better way to deceive then through imitation, or if you truly have a dynamic faith –

1) Was there a time when I honestly realized I was a sinner and admitted this to myself and to God?
2) Was there a time when my heart stirred me to flee from the wrath to come? Have I ever seriously been exercised over my sins?
3) Do I truly understand the Gospel, that Christ died for my sins and arose again? Do I understand and confess that I cannot save myself?
4) Did I sincerely repent of my sins and turn from them? Or do I secretly love sin and want to enjoy it?
5) Have I trusted Christ and Christ alone for my salvation? Do I enjoy a living relationship with Him through the Word and in the Spirit?
6) Has there been a change in my life? Do I maintain good works, or are my works occasional and weak? Do I seek to grow in the things of the Lord? Can others tell that I have been with Jesus?
7) Do I have a desire to share Christ with others? Or am I ashamed of Him?
Do I enjoy the fellowship of God’s people? Is worship a delight to me?
9) Am I ready for the Lord’s return? Or will I be ashamed when He comes for me?

I want to put out there to you all that you may not answer a resounding yes to all of these questions. Some you may fail. Does that mean you are not a true believer? No. Everyone’s walk is different, their path unique to them. That is the process of sanctification, of becoming like Christ. These are things that we should be striving towards. At the very least, these questions will give you help on determining your spiritual standing before God.

The Psalmist in Psalm 139:23-24 sets the scene for us: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

How we respond to trials (1:3-12)
How we respond to temptations (1:13-18)
How we react to the Word of God (1:19-27)

We are going to finish looking at this last test quickly before we move into the next test James lays out for us: How we respond to favoritism (2:1-13)

How many of you like to talk? How many of you think you talk too much? Has either aspect gotten you in trouble before? Here at the end of Chapter 1, James is no longer presenting new material on this matter. He is reiterating what he talked about in v.19 when he said “everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak…” But this time, James is taking a different direction. Last time he addressed what happens when we don’t want to listen to what Scripture has to say and we get angry. That inner seething we talked about. We don’t want to change out lives and we try to reason with God on why some aspect of our life should stay. Now James is going down the path of what our religion should look like. We can create an image of ourselves with all of our religious activities: church, communion, praying before eating, daily reading, hanging out with Christian friends, even coming here on Tuesdays, or if you also attend any other bible studies. To the outside world, you might be considered a religious person. But how deep does your religion go? We mentioned it at the end of last week on how deeply the Word of God must dig in order to grow roots: all the way to our heart. It can’t be something that we wear as a badge on our sleeve or around our necks. Because as soon as we open our mouths, they will betray us. Why? Because if God hasn’t hidden his Word inside of us, then we are just giving lip service.

Jesus was against lip service. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in Matthew 12:34 about speaking evil: “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Jesus goes on in the next couple of verses to illustrate how you can tell a good tree from a bad tree: by it’s fruit. James latches on to that illustration here when he is telling us what our religion should look like. It shouldn’t be a show that we put on with our mouths. It should come from our actions. Paul talks about the same thing in Romans 3:13-14: “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

So what are we supposed to do? We need to “look after orphans and widows in their distress” v.27. Back then, the widows and orphans were severely oppressed. They hardly had any rights in society. They were the outcasts. But James also says that we need to “keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Notice that he does not say we need to be removed from the world. We are supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. The things that this world lifts up and praises, we shouldn’t. When we start thinking about only ourselves, that’s when we get ourselves in trouble because we trample the people around us.

How do we know if we’ve been polluted by the world? It shows in the things that we do, especially in times of trials (which we already talked about. If you forget, I encourage you to go back to chapter 1 verse 2 and refresh yourself with what James says). As we move into Chapter 2, we see James is still stuck on this idea of letting your actions speak louder than you words. He paints a picture that the originally readers of his letter would understand. But let’s see if we can modernize it so it’s relevant to today. James 2:1 says plainly: “don’t show favoritism.” How many people judge a book by it’s cover? Or a movie by the dvd case? Or a person by the clothes he/she wears? The car he/she drives? The job he/she does?

Now in the next couple of verses, James will uses some examples that are the extremes to illustrate his point. When he describes the 2 types of people who walk into the church, he takes it pretty far. The NIV translates the Greek word for where the people are gathering as “meeting” but it’s actually closer to the word for synagogue, or church. Remember who part of James’ audience is: Jewish believers. This illustration seems to be directed towards them, not just in it’s word form, but in it’s execution. The Pharisees of that time were all about show. To show preference to someone who looks like they may have some wealth on them was common. And the rich man here was rich. Think celebrity rich. Nice suit, shiny shoes, jewelry, posse, maybe had someone park his Ferrari or Escalade in the parking lot. And look at how he is received: shown to a good seat. It probably wasn’t a VIP section, but they were escorted, show personal attention to make sure they were comfortable and welcome.

But let’s look at the other person who comes in: the “poor man in shabby clothes” v.2. The KJV actually translates the word for ‘shabby’ for ‘vile’. These clothes aren’t just something that was pulled off the rack at the Salvation Army. This is all he owns. He doesn’t have a closet full of options. He probably hasn’t bathed recently either and since they didn’t have the nice porcelain bathroom fixtures that we have today, he’s probably covered in more than just dirt. You might be able to go as far as saying they smelled him before they saw him; definitely after he left they still smelled him. What would that be in today’s world: a homeless man. A beggar. And how was he treated? Not with respect. In fact, it was with insult. James only says that the poor man was told where to stand, but in the original Greek, it was a stronger direction of what to do. It was a double insult. First, “you stand there”, probably pointing to the corner out of the way. Or he gives him the option to “sit on the floor by my feet” or as the KJV translates it as “under my footstool” So you can either be way over there by yourself, or at my feet in a position of submission so I can rest my feet on you. Who would feel welcome with those choices?

But let me put something out there for you guys. Back then, this man may have gotten into this condition by choice. In NT times, poverty was common among new believers because they didn’t put value on material possessions. You can see in the book of Acts how people all lived in a community where they all shared everything. But this may be a special situation where if he is in a church setting, he may not have anything. Back then to accept Christ was to go against family tradition, which meant he probably lost his inheritance and everything he knew. To follow Christ meant turning your back on family with dire consequences. But that’s how Jesus wanted them. Remember when he said in Luke 6:20 “Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God.” And then later in v.23 he says: “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.” Even James back in 1:9-11 talks about the rich man vs the poor man.

So not only are we using this passage to look at the external, but we are looking at the internal too. The description of the poor man, the vile clothes, is another part of speech of the Greek word used in Chapter 1:21: the “moral filth”. So we are talking about their deeds in the past, their morality. This person must have done something in the past either against the church, or against his family, or against God. How often do we see the past and apply it to the person now? We think ‘what are they doing here? They made fun of me for going to church.’ But there are many examples of people with morally dark pasts that God has used for good in his church. Just look at Paul. Killed Christians one day, the next God used him to write most of the New Testament.  Maybe as you sit here there is someone coming to mind who you have judged recently without giving them a chance. In v.4, James says “have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” So what are we supposed to do? As Christ did. If the person who walks through the door is a Christian, we accept him because Christ lives in him, regardless of his looks or past. If the person is not a Christian, then we receive him because Christ died for him. That’s what the “noble name of him to whom you belong” is: Christ. We are called Christians because we belong to Christ.

Guess what, I can probably say with good certainty that we were all once on the outside looking in. We all were the poor man of moral filth at one point in our lives. And God still accepted us. He still forgave our sins. Not that we deserved it, but by his Grace. Ephesians 2:8: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Now next week we are going to come back to this idea of faith and works, but for right now, just use it as a way to remember what God did for you and how you should receive others as you were received. Or, as the royal law puts it: “Love your neighbor as yourself” James 2:8. Why do you think James calls it the “royal law”? Not only was it given by the King of kings, but it was the basis for all of the Commandments given to Moses.

Again, James with the extreme examples picks 2 of the Commandments that are probably directed at a certain church or group of people. Adultery and murder. If you’ve done one, you’ve broken the law as much as the person who does the other. Don’t forget that Jesus raised the bar on the original 10 Commandments in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. If you aren’t familiar with it, you can read it here. Murder? Have you hated someone in your heart? Then you have killed them. Have you committed adultery? Not married? What about looking lustfully at someone else? Undressed them with your eyes? You’ve broken the law. We can go through all 10 of the Commandments. So is there hope for us? We are all lawbreakers. All sinners. Yes. We know that Christ forgives our sin. If we put our trust in him as our Savior, then we become righteous in God’s eyes. We don’t deserve that. We deserve to be sent to hell. That is our judgment. But God has forgiven us. He accepted the punishment that should have been put on our shoulders when he sent his Son to the Cross. He paid it all.

But we forget that when we turn around and judge someone else for the wrong they did against us. Look at v.12-13. Someone read those out loud. “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” We are going to be judged. All of us. We will be called to the judgment seat of God. Scripture says we will be judged on three things and I’ll close with these:

By our words.  Matthew 12:36-37: But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. Watch your tongue. Watch the advice you give. Watch what words you swear when you are mad/hurt/tired. Watch what jokes you share, stories you tell, and people you talk about.

By our deeds. Colossians 3:23-25: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. This verse is commonly used in relation to your job. Which is true. But it’s also true for all of the other things you do. Are you nice to people? What kind of driver are you? Are you willing to get dirty, go out of your way, put your own schedule on hold for someone else?

By our attitudes. James 2:13: because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Do we show mercy to others? This doesn’t mean we should do things to others in order to get things from God. We don’t give mercy so that we receive mercy. We should do it because that’s what Jesus did to others and that’s what God did to us. Remember the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18:21-35? The servant was forgiven his debt but then turns around and demands payment from someone else? If you aren’t familiar with it and you struggle with forgiving others, read this parable.

Our beliefs control our behavior. Dr. Del Tackett put it nicely in the Truth Project when he asked: do you really believe that what you believe is really real? Do we really believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that God is gracious, His Word is true, and one day He will judge us? Before we search other people, we need to search ourselves and make sure we are living the way we are talking.

Next week we will look at the difference between having faith and doing deeds. And don’t think we are finished with examining our tongues and the words we say. We’ll be back.