James chapter 4, we're going
to look at just three verses, verses 10 through 12. This is
a subject in itself. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of
another, brethren. Even speaketh evil of his brother,
and judgeth his brother. Speaketh evil of the law, and
judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou
art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver
who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgeth another? Speak not evil of one another,
brethren. How needful is this? How needful. You know, the truly humble, we
began by reading verse 10, humble yourself. A truly humble person,
a meek and lowly person, won't speak evil. It just won't. That's a fact. Now, if you would
ask me the theme of the book of James, it would be wisdom
from above. In chapter 1, remember how it
began? Verse 5, if any of you lack wisdom,
they mask of God. And then chapter 3 talks about
verse 13, who is a wise man and dude with knowledge? Let him
show out of a good conversation or walk and talk his works with
meekness of wisdom. But if you have envy and strife
in your heart, she said, this wisdom, verse 15, this wisdom,
that's not wisdom from God, that's earthly, verse 17, but wisdom
that's from above. So this is the theme of the book
of James. And you know, you know. that
Christ is made unto us wisdom. Wisdom imputed. Saving wisdom. Wise to know God, to know His
law. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify me. And He is made unto us wisdom,
thank God. Imputed wisdom. And it's saving
wisdom to know Him, to believe Him, to trust Christ. and imparted
wisdom. It is wisdom given us, put in
us. This is Christ in us to know
to be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves. Our Lord was called
holy, harmless, separate from sinners. His words were never
meant to destroy a brother, anyway. I mean, He will destroy by the
word of His mouth. But He destroys that enmity in
His people. Wisdom imparted, wisdom in the
heart will regulate the mouth. We saw that. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And we've been looking at this
extensively, haven't we? The tongue, how important it
is. Remember these verses? Look at chapter 1, verse 19. My beloved, wherefore? My beloved,
brethren, let every man be swift to hear. It means ready to hear,
more ready to hear than to talk. Slow to speak. Don't give an
answer so quick. Just hold on. Slow to wrath. Verse 26, if any among you seem
to be religious and bridle up not his tongue, that person's
religion is vain. It's vain. Chapter 2, verse 12,
So speak ye, and so do, as they that will be judged shall be
judged by the law of liberty. This is what James is talking
about. The law. You're going to be judged by it. Chapter 3,
verse 2. In many things we offend all.
If any man offend not in word, or speech, that the same is a
perfect, a mature Christ-like man, and able to bridle the whole
body. That's still amazing scripture
to me. I want to know something about
that. Verse 6 of chapter 3, the tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity. Among our members, it defiles
the whole body. It sets on fire the course of
nature. It's set on fire of hell. It
can start a fire that can't be put out. Verse 10, out of the
same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these
things ought not so to be. Verse 17, the wisdom from above,
you see. This is Christ and this is Christ
in us. It's pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated.
full of mercy, good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy,
and the fruit of righteousness, sown in peace of them that make
peace. And then here in chapter 4, he
says, Speak not evil one of another, brethren. Now, he's talking to
brethren. He says, he calls them brethren
fifteen times in this, starts to say gospel. Well, it is a
gospel. Fifteen times. He's talking to professing believers. He's talking mainly to the Jews. He was writing to the twelve
tribes professing Christians, Jews. But the same truth is to
Jew and Gentile. But there's two believers. Just
like the Lord was preaching to His disciples on the Sermon on
the Mount, that's who that was to. Because He kept saying, you're
the light of the world, you're Father, you're the salt of the
earth, didn't He? He said, the world will hate
you. He's talking to believers, professing
believers, and that's who this is talking to. Unbelievers, Scripture
calls them evil. Evil workers. And they can't
do anything but speak evil. Okay? So this is talking to His
people. who He admonishes and rebukes
and corrects and instructs and telling them, don't you be guilty
of doing what the world does. Speak evil. Speak evil. Talking to believers, God's true
people. Speak not evil, brethren. Speak not evil of one another. Speak not evil. Now, this is
an evil that we're all Too guilty of. All of us. All of us are
guilty. All of us have sinned and come
far short of not doing this. We're all guilty. We need to
repent. That's why our Lord said to His
intimate disciples, except you repent, you'll likewise perish. Turn from. Don't do this. You know, this is such the mercy
of God in rebuking us and correcting us and chasing us and warning
us. Don't do this. God is so good,
like a parent who chastens his child. Don't do this. This is not law. This is the
law of love. He's telling us, don't do this.
Why? Because it's going to come back on you if you do. You're
the one that's going to suffer for this. God's going to make
sure of it. He's going to make sure of it. Did
you read the article on pride this morning, the lowly? God, He is able, the pride, the
proud, He is able to abase and His people, Whenever they do,
count on it, He's going to bring them down. And it's a hard and
painful lesson, a humiliating lesson. So our Lords tell us,
don't do this. Don't do this. Speak evil. Speaking
evil means to speak critically. I'm talking about believers,
brethren. Speak critically in a judgmental way to find fault. To find fault, it's bad enough
to only find fault in our brethren. It's worse to talk about it. That's not love. It's bad enough,
it's self-righteous enough to only find fault in our brethren. But our Lord said He hates it
when you talk about it. Don't talk about it. Love, cover
it. I don't want anybody to find
out about it. That's enough. Don't speak evil. Don't find faults. Don't talk
about it. Finding faults and failures and
sins of others and exposing it. Talk to others about it. There's
only one reason we would talk to other people about our brethren's
sins and failures. Make us look good. That's exactly right, isn't it?
Exactly right. The Lord calls it evil. Evil. He said the tongue is a fire,
it's a world of iniquity, and it can destroy and start a fire
that's impossible for man to put out. Don't speak evil. Don't speak for the purpose of
making someone look bad or bring them down or ruin them. Don't
do it. That's spiritual larceny. Proverbs
16. Proverbs 16. Oh, this is so profitable. All Scripture is profitable for
teaching, for doctrine, for proof, for correction, instruction in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect like Christ,
throughly furnished with all good works. And He gave pastors
and teachers to do this very thing, for the perfecting of
the saints, that they be more like Christ. Proverbs 16. Now, he's plainly writing about
slander. and backbiting and gossip among
brethren. And he said, brethren, these
things ought not to be ever. And if they are, the Lord is
going to deal hard with that tail bearer. He'll deal with
the sinner. But that's between him and them,
isn't it? Not us. But he'll deal harder with the
tail bearer than he will the sinner. And count on it. Proverbs
16, verse 27 and 28, an ungodly man diggeth up evil. Do you want your bones, your
skeletons dug up? Anybody? He passed, brought up. I mean
yesterday. An ungodly man does. In his lips
there is a burning fire. A froward man, verse 28, a froward
man is corrupt, evil, soweth strife. And a whisperer separateth
chief friends, old friends. Go to a brother and whisper. You know the only reason we whisper?
We have two reasons why we whisper. We don't want others to hear
it. And it's something we're ashamed to say aloud. Do you remember little catty
girls back in school whispering? Remember that? The object of their whispering,
you know it, you girl, you remember. Guys didn't do that. Guys just
punched each other in the face. Let's get it over with and it's
over. That's true. It's a fact, isn't
it? But girls with catty little girls,
you remember that, girls? And here'd be a girl they're
talking about over here. Have you ever been the object
of that? It kills you, doesn't it? It's the hardest thing I've
ever experienced in my life for brethren to know that brethren
are talking about you. That's hard to deal with. It's
hard to deal with. Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18. You know, we don't want that
done to us, do we? We don't want people doing that to us. Our
Lord said, then don't you do it. Don't you do it. It's going to
come back on you. Proverbs says that many times.
A man will be snared in his own devices. He'll dig a ditch and
he's going to fall in it. His own words are going to come
back on him. The Lord will see to it if you're
a believer. Proverbs 18, verse 8, the words
of a tail-bearer are as wounds that go down into the innermost
parts of the belly Verse 19, a brother offended is harder
to be won than a strong city. Words do hurt and last much longer
than sticks and stones. Much longer. There's a threefold
rule of repeating a matter. One of the old writers, I first
heard my pastor say it, but I read it recently, one of the really
old writers said this, a three-fold rule of repeating a matter. Number
one, is it true? Do you know beyond a shadow of
a doubt that it's absolutely true? Were you there? Did you
see it? Did you hear it? And this is
why the Lord said two or three witnesses. I mean, they have
to see it and hear it before you repeat it. Is it true? The law, the court of law, man's
pagan laws won't even allow any testimony in court unless there's
witnesses. The Pharisees said, our law doesn't
judge a man for it. Here's him. And I love, somebody
once said, before we talk about a brother, let's call him up.
Let's hear his side. Wouldn't you want the same? Wouldn't
you want the same? Is it true? Alright, that will
prevent 90% of what's said because you're just taking somebody's
word for it. Badly mistaken. Number two, is
it kind? Before you repeat it, all right,
maybe it is true. Maybe this brother or sister
has done this or whatever, even to you. Is it kind? Is it going to be kind? What
you say to someone else, is it going to be kind? Love is kind. If you're going to say it, say
it in a kind way, not with the intention of bringing him down. The Lord will bring you down.
That will eliminate ninety-nine percent of gossip and talk. All right, the third one. Is
it necessary? That would probably eliminate
all of it. Is it necessary that I tell this? What's the outcome? The glory
of God? The good of this person? Their
mercy? My good? How's this going to
benefit me? Is this going to look bad on
me? Don't say it. Aren't those good rules? Speak
not evil one another. Don't say or do anything for
the intention of, well, only helping, only for the purpose
of being merciful and gracious. Our Lord opened not His mouth. And all of us betrayed Him, forsook
Him, sold Him, He opened his mouth. God had highly exalted him. The royal law is, and this is
what James is talking about, the royal law is, love thy neighbor
as thyself. This is the royal law. He said,
if you do this, speak evil, you're speaking against this law. This
is a good law. Oh, this is a wonderful law,
isn't it? Love thy neighbor as thyself. Love him like you want
to be loved. Isn't that a good law? Why would
we speak against that? Why would we not do that? Love
thy neighbor as thyself. I need and want mercy from God. I need it more than anything
else. And I want it. How am I going to get it? How
am I going to get it? God said to the merciful, he
showed himself merciful. I need and want mercy from my
brethren. I need you to be merciful for
me because in many things I've offended you. I'm going up here
talking all the time. And I realize, I say things in
a way, I can count on one hand the messages that I've not been,
not grieved over. The way I said it, or what I
didn't say, or what I should have said and didn't say, especially
the way I said it. But if you love me, you know
I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm just flesh. Flesh. I want mercy from you. How am I going to get it? I'm
merciful to you. I don't want to be judged by
the Lord. One of the most powerful verses
in Scripture I know of is this, if we'll judge ourselves, we
won't be judged. Well, I don't want to be judged.
on anything I've said or done, ever. I don't even want the Lord to
look... I know the Lord looks on the heart, but David said,
after he did what he did, and thought what he thought, and
lived like he lived, he thought, something's wrong with my heart.
I thought I had a good heart, but it deceived me. He said,
Lord, create in me a clean heart. I thought I had a good spirit.
He said, renew within me a right spirit. Take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. He thought I was a believer. He said, no, I don't know. He
says, Lord, have mercy on me. All right, David, you be merciful. He was more merciful after that
than he ever was before. Oh, it's a painful lesson, isn't
it? Proverbs 10, go over there. You know, I don't want to be
talked about, do you? About your brethren? I don't want to be
talked about. If they do talk about me, I want it to be good,
don't you? I want it to be good. I want to think that they're
commending me and saying lovely things about me, don't you? Well, how can I eliminate that? That's what the Lord said. Then
don't you do any of that. Don't do it. Proverbs 10, go
over here. Proverbs 10, verse 11 and 12. Proverbs 10, 11 and 12. The mouth of the righteous man
is a well of life. Our Lord's grace poured from
His lips. But violence covereth the mouth
of the wicked. Hatred stirreth up strifes. Love covereth. How many sins? What kind of sins? How bad of
sins? All sin. Don't you love that
verse? Our Lord Jesus Christ said, All
manner of sin shall be forgiven. Chapter 11, verse 12, he that
is void of wisdom, despiseth his neighbor, but a man of understanding
will hold his peace. It won't say anything. What good
will it do? He understands. What good is
this going to do? With no fuel, the fire will go out. I want
it to go out. But don't provide any fuel. Verse
13, a tale-bearer revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful
spirit concealeth the matter. And one more, Psalm 15. You know why Solomon knew what
he knew? His daddy taught him. Psalm 15. His daddy taught him. Who taught
his daddy? The Lord did. God did. We need to teach these
things to our children, don't we? Mothers, teach your daughters.
Don't be catty little girls. Don't talk about your friends.
You know what's going to happen? They're going to talk about you.
No matter what they say to your face, count on it. They're going
to be talking behind your back. Don't do it. Don't do it. Psalm
15. And men, tell your boys, don't
punch them in the face. Turn the other cheek. Didn't
he? Don't fight back. You want to
stop a fight? You resist evil with good. Turn
the other cheek. But what? This is Jesus Christ
talking here. This is wisdom personified. Want
to stop a fight? Our Lord said, stop it. Don't carry it on. Psalm 15,
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in
thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and
worketh righteousness, speaketh the truth in his heart. He that
backbites not with his tongue. Nor doeth evil to his neighbor,
nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor." You say, Brother, we can't do
all that. Well, our Lord said, Do it anyway. That man with a withered hand
couldn't stretch out his hand either, could he? What did the
Lord say? Stretch it out. Peter couldn't walk on water
either. No, he couldn't walk on water. But the Lord said,
walk, come down. Do what I said. His commandments
are not grievous. The way of the transgressor is
hard, and it's going to come down hard. But His commandments
are good. His yoke is easy. His burden
is light. Back to James and I'll close. Back to the book of James.
It's said in verse 11, he that speaks evil of his brother, judges
his brother, speaketh evil of the law and judges the law. If
you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law. You're not
under this law of liberty, but you've become the judge of it,
like you wrote it. Judge means to condemn and sentence. We do make judgments. according
to our understanding, according to Scripture. Righteous judgment
is judgment according to Scripture, and it usually is more mercy
than anything. Like our Lord, who is the judge,
who is more merciful. But judge means to condemn, sentence,
be the judge, and sentence someone to be punished. That's what judgment. You deserve this. As far as I'm
concerned, it ought to be carried out. That's a judge. All right. I'm going to show
you, and you know these things, but I'm going to show you how
we need to be glad that God's our judge, that we're not one
another's judge. We need to be real thankful that
our judge is not like us. There's one lawgiver. He said
in verse 12, one judge who is able to save and able to destroy. And so he says, who art thou?
Who are you? Now, I'm so glad that the Lord
Jesus Christ, God has made Him judge over all. The Lord said,
all judgment is given unto me in heaven and earth. I'm so glad
because He doesn't see as we see. He doesn't hear like we
hear. He said, I judge not according
to the sight or the ears. I judge righteous judgment. In
other words, when He sees us do something, and He hears us
say something, aren't you glad He doesn't immediately condemn
us? Do you want to be judged and
sentenced and condemned for what you have done or said in the
past? All right, now hold on, it's
not over yet. We're not through offending. We're not through sinning. If
you're 35, you've got twice that many more to go at least. Do we want to be judged on what
we do or say? Now, remember to offend at one
point. One slip up, the holy God should
say, one slip up, the soul that sinneth. The Lord says, I saw you, I heard
you, I heard what you said, but I didn't mean it. The Lord says,
oh, yes, you did. I know you. I know you better
than anybody. I saw you. You meant to do that. And I heard you. You meant to
say it. Oh, yes, you did. Don't try to fool me. I know
you. I know you better than you know
you. There's not a thought in your head that I don't know of,
not a word in your tongue that I don't know before you speak
it. Psalm 139. I know you. I know what you have
done, what you're thinking right now, and I know what you're going
to do. Don't. Better come clean for
me. And here's what the Lord says.
Yes, you did. You meant that. And I stopped
you from doing. You thought it. And the only
reason you didn't do it was because I stopped you from doing it.
Had I just left you alone, you would have done it. And that person over there that
did it, the only reason you didn't is because I stopped you. Now what you got to say for yourself. Nehemiah 9, I'll close with this,
Nehemiah chapter 9, this prayer of Nehemiah. Go back to Nehemiah
9, I'll give you time to find it, give me time to find it. Go back from the book of Job,
just a few, a couple of chapters, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Nehemiah
chapter 9. So the royal law is this. The
royal law is judge yourself. You won't be judged. Condemn
yourself. Confess your sins. No condemnation. No condemnation. Confess yourself. No condemnation comes right after
Romans 7, doesn't it, John? Romans 8 says there's no condemnation. Right after Romans 7, Paul said,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I can't do what I want
to do. Oh, wretched man that I am. Romans 8 says, no condemnation. Why? Because he said, I condemn
myself. I come before the judge with
a rope around my neck. I hear that the King of Israel
is merciful. He is, but only to the end. Nehemiah 9, look at this. Look
at this. Read this with me. It says in
verse 13, Thou came down from Mount Sinai
and spake with these children of Israel from heaven, gave them
judgments and true laws and good statutes of commandment, made
known unto them your holy Sabbath, commanded the precepts, the statutes,
the law by the hand of Moses thy servant, gave them bread
from heaven for their hunger, brought forth water for them
out of the rock for their thirst, promised to them that they should
go to possess the land which thou hast sworn to give them. They and our fathers, and us,
dealt proudly, hardened their necks, hearkened not to thy commandments,
refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou
didst among them. Hardened their necks in their
rebellion, appointed a captain to return to bondage. But thou art a God ready to pardon." Ready to pardon. Have you ever read a more wonderful
scripture in your entire life? Look at what all we do. Don't
do it. But God, rich and merciful, ready
to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, great kindness,
forsook them not. Yea, they made a golden calf,
molten calf, and said, this is our God. that brought us up out
of Egypt wrought great provocations, provoking him. Yea, but thou
in thy manifold mercies forsook them not." Verse 20, "...gave them thy good
spirit to instruct them, withheld not manna from their mouth."
Now this is all to rebels. "...and gave them water for their
thirsts." Down in verse 26, nevertheless they were disobedient, rebelled
against God, cast His law behind their backs, slew the prophets
that testified against them to turn them to thee, and wrought
great provocation. Therefore you delivered them
into the hand of their enemies to vex them and give them trouble.
But, verse 30, many years did thou forbear them and testify
against them by thy spirit and the prophets, yet they would
not give ear. Thou gavest now them into the hand of the people
of the land." That's what they deserve. Nevertheless, for Thy
great mercy's sake, Thou didst not utterly consume them, nor
forsake them, for Thou art a gracious and merciful God. That's our judge. Here's something greater. This
judge, you'll find him in the latter days, standing to be judged. Standing before a kangaroo court
of self-righteous evil men to be judged by creatures. And standing there, Dan, and
keeping his mouth shut. Judged, condemned, sentenced,
and killed, and never opened his mouth. That's our judge. I'm so glad he's my judge, aren't
you? Ready to pardon. And you know
what? I want to be like that. I want
to be like Him. I do, don't you? I don't want
to be your judge. You don't want me as your judge,
final judge. I don't want you as mine. I'm
so glad God is, aren't you? Barnard used to say that, better
be glad I'm not God. I'm glad God's God, Archie. I'm glad Christ is God and that
He's merciful and gracious. And He tells us this. Now, because
I've done this for you, you see how merciful I am for you? You
see how I close my mouth? I don't expose you, cover you,
put all your sins behind my back, don't bring them up again. I
do the same. Or, how humble you. Good, good counseling. Okay.