Looking in the book of James
again, as we have been. And finishing up with chapter
two. And again reading there in verse
26 of chapter two and reading the third chapter. For as the
body without the spirit is dead, So faith without works is dead
also. Now, before we begin chapter
three, of course this is the theme of the book of James. He
says faith without works is dead. Now dead faith is of no use whatsoever. It is the faith of natural men.
It will not suffice. Many men say they have faith.
Faith abounds. And many men have works. And good works abound. Good works are not always performed
by true faith, but true faith always performs good works. You
know, the Lord made that plain to the Pharisees in the seventh
chapter when he said many would say to him in that day, Lord,
have we not done these things in thy name? And he would say
to them, depart from me, I never knew you, ye that work iniquity.
So good works, or those things that men call good works, are
not necessarily the fruit of faith. And if they are not, they
are not useful. They may be useful in this life,
but they are not those things of which God has any regard. for the only things that God
has regard to are those things which are in Christ there is
no regard that we have before the Lord except what we have
in Christ but the glorious thing is he has given us that regard
because he has put us in Christ and so that's when James speaks
about this faith that is dead That is, without words, he's
speaking about a faith that's no faith at all. Because true
faith, living faith, does indeed perform works. I mean, it does. It operates because it's the
operation of the Spirit of God in the people of God. That is
the works of God. Now, men won't often take credit
for the things they do, but there's no credit to be given to any
but to the Lord, because if we perform anything that is of use
and gives glory to God, as the good works that he's speaking
about here do, then it is of Christ, and we give him the glory,
and we seek none for ourselves. So that's why we don't, uh... make a issue out of patting people
on the back when they do good works because uh... you know why the lord said uh... you know when we've done all
that the lord commanded us uh... then we're still unprofitable
servants we only did that which we should have done and may the
lord give us grace to be a people that uh... have faith that is
proven by the works of the Spirit of God in us and through us as
he does perform that. My brethren, starting in chapter
three, my brethren, be not many masters or teachers, instructors,
knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation or stricter
judgment. For in many things we offend
all, If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man,
and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in
horses' mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their
whole body. Behold also the ships, which
though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, with
a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listed. Even so
the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold
how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a
fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course
of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts,
and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the earth is
tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no
man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even
the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after
the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth
blessing, and cursing. My brethren, these things ought
not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at
the same place sweet water and bitter? Can a fig tree, my brethren,
bear olive berries? Either a vine figs? So can no
fountain both yield salt water and fresh? Who is a wise man
and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good
conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter
envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against
the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and
strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the
wisdom that is from above is first pure. then peaceable, gentle,
and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. Now anyone that reads this passage
of scripture and comes away feeling like he's doing pretty good,
has missed the point that James is making here. This is meant
to hit us right between the eyes and to give us no wiggle room. You know, because we like wiggle
room, don't we? I mean, you know, whenever we,
we kind of, we try to like, we like making excuses. It's born
in us. It was in our parents in the
garden. They each made excuse. But the truth is that James is
very straightforward here in the things that he speaks. While
they are not comfortable to read, they are true and we need to
learn from them. And such is the work of the Spirit
of God in the people of God that we will learn something from
them. Unfortunately, what he says here that the tongue can
no man tame. Because the very best of men,
the most spiritual of men, will from time to time say things
that they ought not. They'll say things that hurt
other people. They'll say things that are not
true. And the tongue is an unruly evil. Well, why don't we cut
our tongue out? because we'd find a way to communicate
the very things that we would with our tongue through other
means. It's just like if a man steals
and you cut his hand off, that's not gonna keep him from stealing.
He'll just take the stump and grab on to whatever he's gonna
get. It might hinder him a little,
but it won't stop him. And so he begins here, with an
interesting subject. He says, my brethren, be not
many masters or teachers. And then he goes, he uses that
as a preface, I believe, to what he goes on to talk about, about
the tongue. And as we look at what James
is saying here, he said, don't clamor to instruct other people. Now, a lot of people think that
it's really a good thing or they have their earthly and fleshly
pleasure in spouting off to people about all the things they know.
You know, they like to hold people in rapt attention and for people
just to listen to them. Politicians, by and large, are
of that ilk. I mean, that's born into those
that are politicians. They think that they're gonna
just, everybody's just gonna swoon at their great wisdom and
personality and all of those things. Well, such is not. of the Lord is not a good thing.
My brethren, be not many masters. Now this has of course application
in spiritual things and that is that unless the Lord calls
man to be a teacher or a preacher of the Word then it is folly
for a man to take that upon himself. Now having said that, that does
not mean that a man has to have some order conferred upon him
by other men and that he has what some say well he's been
ordained to the ministry. That's not what he's talking
about here at all. Because a man may be called of God and never
have anybody else to put their hands on him or make him out
to be something separate from other people. The Lord Jesus,
he didn't come under the auspices of somebody ordaining him to
be a teacher. He just had that gift from the
Lord. He was the Word, of course, and
he came speaking the Word. And so it is that those whom
the Lord calls must speak the word. They will speak the word.
Paul said, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. In other
words, he said this thing's been laid on me. It wasn't something
that he sought out. And I believe that, this is my
personal feeling, that men who clamor to be preachers. They want to be preachers to
be able to stand before people and preach. I mean, that's what
they want to do. I don't think they're much preachers at all.
Because I believe it's a true thing that those who are called
of God to declare the word of God, they would like to escape
it if they could. But they can't. Paul said necessity
is laid upon me. Because it's not a glorious place. Now the message that we declare
is a glorious thing, but he says here, my brethren, be not many
masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
Now I'm, I don't, that's a mystery sort of thing to me, but yet
I know that One thing, one passage in the scripture says that we must give an account for the
souls of those to whom we declare the word of God. I don't fully
understand that. But yet, it's a great burden. And so it says don't clamor for
this. Be mindful. you know that with
as in all things to whom much is given much is required and
if a man would stand before other men to teach other men let him
be sure that what he is saying is the truth of God not just
some whim that he has or something that he wants to say see everybody
has something they want to tell other people don't they man I'd
like to get him straightened out I mean That's not the position
and that's not what we're called to do as God's people. Now I
believe from time to time the Lord does raise up men to declare
the word of God. He puts a burden on their heart
to do it. I don't think that because a man either does that
on a regular basis or he doesn't do it on a regular basis has
any bearing on whether or not he's called to bring the word.
You know, when the Lord lays a burden on a man's heart, he
needs to share that burden. But he doesn't need to clamor
after it. You know, my man, I can't wait to get to where I can do
that. You know, that's not the thing.
Because great responsibility comes with teaching the Word
of God. For in many things, and he goes
on to talk about the offense of the Word, for in many things
we offend all. Now, and this is a true thing. We stumble. We mess up. It's often true. I mean, that's true of men in
general. If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man and also able to bridle the whole
body. And that's true in the things that we teach and say. We're sometimes gonna stumble. Sometimes we're gonna be in error.
Sometimes we're going to lead men astray. It's not our goal. Now there are deceivers that
have gone into the earth that their goal is to deceive men. Their goal is to lead men astray.
Their goal is to lead men away from Christ. That's not our goal. We may from time to time do that. It's not because we would desire
to do that. And so We need to watch. Behold, we put bits in horses'
mouths. We need to watch what we say.
And of course, this has to do with preaching the Word of God,
teaching the Word of God, but it also has to do with our daily
conversation, does it not? Behold, we put bits in horses'
mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole
body. We get the illustration there. That's the whole purpose
of doing that. That's why you have a steering
wheel in the car, so you can turn it. And if you aren't able
to turn it, I mean, it's a bad feeling to be in a car that you
can't control. If you've been on a slick road
or put on the brakes and your car didn't slow down, seemed
like it sped up, that's a bad feeling, isn't it? Because you
don't have control of it. And so he says, behold the ships.
Though they're great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet they're
turned about with a very small helm. I mean, you know, you got
this 50 foot long ship, and it's got a little old rudder right
back there at the back, and that whole ship is turned about by
that little rudder. And that's how it is with the
tongue. A very small helm, whether served
with a governor. Even so, The tongue is a small
member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little
fire can do. I remember hearing a story one
time about a man. He said he was preaching in a
meeting and this woman who was a known gossip in the community,
She just went about all time bearing tales. And she came at
the end of the meeting and she said that she wanted to repent
of her gossip. And I believe she was sincere.
And that she wanted to give her tongue to the Lord. And the preacher
told his sister, he says, this altar's about 15 feet long. He says, you lay as much of it
on there as you can. Now, some people don't have so
small of a tongue because they use it too often. One of the
Proverbs says, he that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life. And we ought to be men of Few
words. Now sometimes we get verbose,
but the truth is often in just very little that we say. And
so we need to be mindful that we don't run off at the mouth
and speak when we should be silent. We've all been told as children
that the Lord gave us two ears and one mouth, and so we ought
to listen twice as much as we speak. And that's not bad advice. And we ought to really keep in
mind that when we feel like we need to say something, be sure
that we need to say something. Be sure that what we're gonna
say is useful and helpful to others. The tongue boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a
little fire kindleth. You know, every fire begins small.
I mean, you can take a match and you can burn a whole forest
down with that one little thing. That's what he's saying here.
Behold, what a great matter that a little fire kindleth. And fires
do start out small. The tongue is a fire. It's like that. What we say can
start something. How many friendships have been
ruined down through the years? How many families have been broken
up over some little word that was said? Something that was
said. Some manner in which it was said.
The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue
among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on
fire the course of nature, and it is set on the fire of hell.
You remember what the Lord said. He said the Pharisees were concerned
that the disciples were eating with unwashed hands. And the
Lord said, it's not that which comes in, that defileth the body,
but that which goes out. And that's what he's saying here.
He said, the tongue defileth the whole body. When we speak
those things that are harmful, those things that are not useful,
those things that do not bring glory to God, those things defile
us and make us unclean in that respect. And so it is, may the
Lord give us a mind to see it. It setteth on fire the course
of nature and it is set on the fire of hell, a burning fire. For every kind of beast, and
of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed,
and hath been tamed. Everything you can think of.
You can go to the zoo, and they got all kind of animals in there. And God gave man the dominion
over the animal, did he not? And he said here, you know, men
can control all these things, but one thing they can't control
is their tongue. Oh, what an unruly thing it is. The tongue can no man tame. It
is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Every man has that potential
within him. And it's always right there.
Anger is that which often unleashes that poison. That's a terrible
thing. And it shows the weakness of
the flesh. I mean, the man that says, you
know, well, I can control myself, he just, when he gets in the
right situation, he won't. Because the tongue can no man
tame. This is not within the power
of men. It's like a man could say, well,
I'm not gonna sin. In fact, I knew a fella one time
said he could go a whole day without sinning. You know? He didn't know what sin was.
He didn't understand, you know, the nature of sin, the nature
of his own heart. And so it is, any man that denies
what James is saying here doesn't understand what he is by nature
because we, if we've been taught anything about ourselves, we
know that we can say and do things in the snap of the fingers that
are ruinous or terrible and are set on the fire of hell, as he
says. full of deadly poison. Therewith
bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which
are made after the similitude of God. God made all men, and
we don't have any business denigrating other men, even if we don't agree
with them. Now this again happens sometimes
in politics, and even sometimes with men who know better, You
know, they use their political leanings to castigate other people
and say ill things that they ought not. Now, you know, there's
plenty of wicked men in the earth and I'm not saying we shouldn't
point out the wickedness of men, but we need to be doing it. for
the purpose of helping God's people to see that wickedness
and not to gain something from it ourselves. There's a big difference in pointing
out the error of somebody and pointing out the error of somebody
so that we might gain, so we might appear better in somebody's
sight. Because if we point out the sin
of another, As someone has said, when you're pointing one finger
at somebody else, you need to look at your hand because you've
got three fingers pointing back at you. And so it is. That's what he's saying here. Therewith bless we God, and even
the Father, and therewith curse we men. Go about praising God
and then speaking ill of our neighbor, whom we're supposed
to love, whom we're supposed to love even with greater love
than our own self. Out of the same mouth proceedeth
blessing and cursing. It shouldn't be that way. Doth
a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olive trees, either of vine
figs, or can a fountain both yield salt water and fresh? Now
we know the answer to that. And that's exactly what he said,
is it not, that faith without works is dead? If a man comes
and he says, I'm a man of great faith, but the fruit does not
manifest that, then that man's faith is vain. Now we're not
talking about perfection because God's people are never going
to be in this world without fault and sin. But the work of the
Spirit of God in us causes us to recognize that that's what
we are by nature and gives us a desire to depart from it. That's the thing we desire. It's
what David prayed. He said, Lord, take not your
Holy Spirit from me. Cleanse me. The work in me. Lord, don't let me go the way
I'm going by nature. I mean, a man that's in Christ,
he can't be content to go the way his nature would lead him.
He can't be content when his tongue is a flame of fire. That's not a thing that he can
abide and say, well, man, this is great. Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. A good conversation. You know,
our life speaks more about us than what we say. Does it not? I mean, we like for people to
do what we say. but it ought to be that we would
rather they do what we do as we follow the Lord, and not what
we say, because what we say goes in one ear and out the other,
usually, but you don't forget what somebody is. You know, you
don't forget the, the good things that men do, the blessings that
men bring to you in this life, you don't forget it. I remember
when my mother died, I had many people come to me and tell me
of Kindnesses that she had shown,
things I never knew anything about. And those things are the
things that are useful. Those things are the things that
are lasting. Those things are those works
which are done by the Spirit of God in God's people. Let him show out of a good conversation
his works. Don't expect people to hold you
in high esteem because of what you said, but what you showed. But if you have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie not against the truth. You know those things are true.
Don't try to overturn them. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and
strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Envying
and strife. But the wisdom that is from above
is first pure, Then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated,
full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality and without
hypocrisy. Now I don't know but one man
who ever illustrated these traits. He walked among men. He was peaceable,
gentle, easily entreated. He was full of mercy. and good
fruits, he was without partiality. And he was certainly without
hypocrisy, because he meant what he did, not for his own self. He said, I came not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me. Oh, that the Lord
might give us a mind and heart to see him, And seeing Him by
His grace to emulate Him, follow His steps, even as we have Him
for, as Peter said, an example. He is our example. Now He is
our Redeemer. And thanks be unto God that we
wouldn't have any place to stand or any hope whatsoever if He
was not our Redeemer. But we must ever keep in mind
that He's not only our Redeemer, but He's our example. You know,
he is that one who has laid out, if you want to know what it is
to walk in the way of God, look at Christ. I mean, that's all
you have to do, look at Christ. I mean, would he, how would he
have acted in this situation or that? It's pure, peaceable,
gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality and without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. There is fruit that
is born as men sow the fruits of peace. In other words, as
men go forth teaching those things that Christ There will be fruit
that is born. There will be fruit that is born
in the lives of God's people, but there will be men that will
be drawn unto Christ as they see the work of God in the people
of God. And whenever, you know, when
men go about boasting about being followers of Christ, but they
don't act much like Him, You know, people don't have much,
don't pay much attention to that, do they? So again, what James
is getting at here is, you know, what you do doesn't make you
acceptable in the eyes of God, because what Christ has done
is that that makes you acceptable to God. But what you do does
matter. You know, how you walk in this
life does matter. And he does, the Spirit of God
does perform this work in his people. So we're not expecting
that we shall be men who never make mistakes. But we do expect
that God's people will be those that desire to learn from their
mistakes and to move on past them and to do all that they
do. Paul said, whatsoever you do, Whether you eat or drink
or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And the
man that does all things to the glory of God will be found to
be a man who shows his faith by his words, because that's
the work of the Lord in his people.