Okay, open your Bibles, if you
would, to the Book of James. Today's message is called Seeking
Standing. Seeking Standing. And this week
in our study of the Book of James, we'll be starting Chapter 3.
Chapter 3. Now, Chapter 3 is a very convicting
chapter. It talks about the tongue. It talks about wisdom from above.
And we are going to see what the context that the verses are
speaking of when they speak at the tongue today. And we'll see
that James, in this chapter, as we go through this chapter,
we'll see that James gives us several admonitions as the children
of God. And always remember that these
words, they come from God the Holy Spirit. He's the true author
of this book. He's the true writer of this
book. These things that will be revealed
to us as we study this chapter and as we study this book, and
when we're either corrected or when we're admonished to do something
or exhorted to do something, remember it's always for God's
glory and for our good. Always for God's glory and for
our good. We're here to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, aren't
we? And that's what we do, we enjoy God. We enjoy the salvation
that we have in him, the mercy that he's showing us. And James
is dealing, we've seen in our study so far, that James is dealing
with the fact that faith without works is dead. And these are
not justifying works before God, as we looked at in that one study,
justified before God and justified before man. These works justify
us before man. And they are wrought in us by
God the Holy Spirit. He gets all the glory. We don't
get any glory at all. We don't want any glory. We give
it all to Him. All the glory and honor and praise.
Now this week we'll be just looking at the first couple of verses
today. And then next week we'll be in the section where James
is dealing with the tongue, which is the hardest member in our
body to control. And I think every one of us know
that. It's true, isn't it? It's the hardest member in our
body to control. The hardest one. And we'll see this fact laid
bare as we study through the next couple studies about the
tongue. And James, again, will give us
examples of bridling the tongue and how hard it is and the devastation
that the tongue can rot when it's not controlled. And again, we see this fact laid
bare. Let's read verses one to five
in James chapter three for today to get the context of the verses
we'll be looking at. James says, my brethren, be not
many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in
word, the same is a perfect man. Enable also to bridle the whole
body. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they
may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also
ships, huge ships, which though they be so great, are driven
of fierce winds, yet they are turned about with a very small
helm. whithersoever the governor listeth. So wherever the pilot
of the ship wants that ship to go, he just turns the wheel,
and just this little wee, this just little wee rudder has it go wherever he wants it
to go. It could be a huge ship. Even so, the tongue is a little
member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter little
fire kindleth. Look at that. Now our brother
James has finished his argument concerning good works which accompany
salvation and again those good works are produced in us by the
Holy Spirit of God and they in no way justify us before God.
Most of the times we don't even know when we do them. And he's finished that argument
concerning good works along with true faith. And he continued
that up to the last verse in James chapter 2. He started in
James chapter 1, verse 27, and he continued that all the way
to the end of chapter 2. Now, what he's going to bring
forth here is not divorced from that section at all. Because the subject matter deals
here with looking down on other believers or lording over other
believers, which we should never do, which
is actually against the teaching of the gospel. It's actually
contrary to the gospel when one lords over people. Even as a
pastor, I'm not the lord over the brethren at all. I'm to lead,
but not lord over you. And we'll see that James takes
up this theme that he began in chapter 1. Look at verse 26 of
chapter 1. James brings forth, if any man
among you seem to be religious and bridle not his tongue, but
deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. So he's going to deal with the
tongue now in a more thorough way in the section that we're
going through now. And we'll see that he's dealing
with some of the themes he was bringing forth in chapter one,
which is number one, not having a haughty spirit, right? Not
vaulting ourselves over others. Remember, he said if a rich man
and a poor man come in, you don't treat the poor man lower than
the rich man, right? No, you treat them the same.
As Brother Scott Richardson used to say, and I know since Travis
and Karen told me about this, I've used it thousands of times,
and you're gonna hear me use it thousands of more times, the
ground is level at the cross. It's absolutely level. We're
all on the same level. There's no little preacher hill
or evangelist hill or teacher hill. We're all the same. All
of us. We're all safe sinners, aren't
we? And so in that sense, we should never vault ourselves
over anyone else. And in man's pride and self-righteousness,
that can occur. And we see here, it can occur
among believers because James has given us a warning here,
right? He's given us a warning by inspiration of the Holy Spirit
of God. And those who vainly boast of their own faith are
most likely to censor others, as those who pretend that religion
are prone to be, with great ease, rigid, really rigid and bitter
against the error of their brethren. They see faults all the time
in their brethren. Their tongue, which they cannot
control, lets the brethren know. And that's
wrong. That's absolutely wrong. We see
that James no longer sets up scenarios to prove a truth. He's
gonna bring us right to where the rubber hits the road when
he talks about the tongue. He's gonna bring us right to
where the rubber hits the road. And he is already in that little
illustration that he gave about the ship. And he's gonna give
us illustrations about these things. And one thing that these brethren
who lord over, or false professors who lord over other people, they
try to bring God's true born-again blood-washed sheep, they try
to bring us under their own measuring stick. Right? That they can't even keep
themselves. They're the blind leading the
blind. So we are not to lord over one
another. James deals with the tongue,
but he's also gonna give us a warning about unqualified and uncalled
teachers and preachers. Or even leaders, people who try
to vault themselves over the body. He's going to bring us
a warning here. Look at verses 1 and 2. My brethren,
be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater
condemnation. 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. Now some identify masters
in verse 1 as one who owns slaves, but that's not the context. of
this verse. That's not the context of that
word used in this section. It's an incorrect interpretation
because the underlying Greek word for masters is defined as
this, to teach. To instruct. A master or a teacher. So we see right away that this
is referring to teachers. Pastors, teachers, You could
say leadership in the church. And we are not to vault ourselves
over any of the brethren if we're in any of those positions. We are never to have feel like
we've arrived, because if we feel like we've arrived, we are
in a world of hurt. I'll tell you what, I can listen
to a green preacher who just started preaching. Right? Someone who the Lord just called,
and I can listen to a preacher been preaching for 50 years and
I'll get the same blessing out of both of them. You know why? Because I'm not
there to vault the man up. I'm there to hear the gospel.
And if that young man has the gospel and that old preacher
has the gospel, I'm going to be blessed by the message no
matter who's preaching it. Right? And notice something that We have a warning here, my dear
brethren, to not rush eagerly toward or to aspire to be teachers
of the scriptures. Every preacher will tell you
we were not looking to be preachers. God called us into this position,
and God equipped us to be a pastor. I used to do a lot of evangelism,
so I always thought, well, Lord, maybe you're gonna call me into
that. I had no idea that I'd become a pastor. Even though
I had a heart for evangelists, to do evangelism, I still didn't
feel called to be an evangelist. I just felt called to share the
gospel. But little did I know that God
would bring me here to Almonte, Michigan, and I'd fall in love
with you all and be your pastor. I had no idea about that. I had
absolutely no idea. But God does amazing things,
doesn't he? He does amazing things. And so we are never to take the
office or any leadership presumptually Unqualified and untaught and
uncalled teachers are partially responsible for the corrupt practices
and doctrines that are out there right now. You've got people
who are supposedly preaching, but they're not preaching the
gospel. They're preaching other things. They're preaching works.
They're preaching all kinds of stuff, and they're not called.
They're not called. I remember talking to a preacher
out west that I got to know. And he was telling me that a
whole bunch of preachers in the valley we used to live in had
quit. You know what he told me? He
said, you know why they quit, Wayne? And I said, why? And he
says, they weren't called. They weren't called. Donny Bell
and I were talking the other day, and he said, Wayne, through
the years, there's been many times I've just wanted to walk
away, but I couldn't. It's true, we can't, we don't
want to. We might get frustrated, we might
have things happen that hurt us, but we won't walk away, beloved. By God's grace, he keeps us. And he keeps us, this gospel,
oh, I'll tell you why, it's becoming more wondrous to me every day.
Is it so for you? It's just wonderful, isn't it?
It becomes more and more wondrous. It never gets old. Now, we don't want to discourage
men from the office of teaching or leadership, but we must urge
restraint and avoid ordaining novices. We must pray that God
will call and make known to us who should preach and teach his
word. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter
10. And we'll see this brought forth
that there's not many There's not many laborers of the harvest
to preach the gospel. But you know what? I remember
Norm Wells telling me, I was talking with him one time, and
he said, you know, people say, well, there's not many grace
preachers around. And he said, there's exactly the amount of
grace preachers that God wants. Isn't that wonderful? And Donny Bell and I were talking
yesterday, and we were saying, there's more preachers out there,
we just don't even know them. There's more people preaching
grace out there, we just don't know. And the gospel, the gospel
of God's grace is going forth. It's going forth with power.
With power. Look at this in Luke chapter
10, verses 1 to 2. After these things the Lord appointed
other 70 also, and sent them two and two before his face into
every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore
said he unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers
are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that
he would send forth laborers into his harvest. So we're to
pray that the Lord would raise up young preachers. Raise up
preachers, period. It doesn't matter if they're
young or old. Just the Lord will raise them up. Lord, raise them
up. And have your gospel go forth
with power, Lord, for your glory, honor, and praise. And then over
in Acts chapter 13, turn if you would to Acts chapter 13, we see here that by the Holy
Spirit he separated and sent out people. Sent out his preachers. Acts 13 verses 1 to 3. Now there
were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and
teachers, says Barnabas, Simon, which was called Neger, and Lucius
of Cyrene, and Menaean, which had been brought up with Herod,
Herod the Tetriarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas, and Saul,
for work one and two I have called them. So they're being separated
to be sent out. And when they had fasted and
prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. There they
go. Laborers, right there we see laborers the hardest being
sent. And notice who separated them. It was the Lord. It was the Holy Ghost. He's the
one who separated them. He's the one who called them,
right? He's the one who sent them. Oh my. And he sends his preachers
wherever he's pleased to send them. Matthew 5.19 says, Whosoever, therefore, shall break
one of the least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven. So the greater condemnation spoken of in the end of James
chapter 3 verse 1 is saying, we teachers are judged by a higher
standard and with greater severity than others. But when we become
teachers, we assume greater accountability and responsibility. Donnie and
I were talking, and Donnie said, Wayne, God puts his preachers
through things that he doesn't put other people through. And it's true. Now, we all go
through heartache. I'm not at all lowering the stuff
that you guys go through, because you go through the same kind
of things I do. But there are some things that
we preachers go through that just break our hearts. Just break
our hearts. But God, he ministers to us,
and he takes care of us. Teaching the word requires not
only a fluent tongue, Tim James says, but a knowledge of the
scriptures and the sincere heart, but also an anointing of the
Lord. Well, I don't think I have a fluent tongue, but I know the
Lord sent me to preach the gospel. And I preach the gospel just
as plainly as I talk to people. I want you to be able to understand
what I'm saying. And the Holy Spirit has to take those words
and apply them to your heart, right? And use them for His glory
and honor and praise. Let's go back to our text again
there. In James 3, verse 1, it says, My
brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive
the greater condemnation. A master here can also mean one
who puts themselves in a place of high reprover. He can't correct
everybody. He or she is going to let you
know They think you're doing something wrong. Speaks of one who's taken this
upon themselves, and that's what these people do. They take these
things upon themselves by self-seeking or by opportunity. When the opportunity
arises, they jump at it. To promote themselves to the
judgment chair. And they feel then that they
are they are in a position to rebuke the brethren, rebuke the practices of others. And the word master here is speaking
of one who sets himself up as one who's there to straighten
out the brethren. I'll tell you what, there's only
one who straightens us out, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the one who straightens us out, And he does it by the
preaching of his word, doesn't he? I can't tell you, I've told
you many times, I'm gonna tell you again, how many times I've
been listening to a message and ping, right between the eyes.
Right between the eyes, just. And that's what happens. That's
what happens. The Lord straightens out his
people, doesn't he? He's the one who corrects us.
And the fact that James uses brethren and masters in the same
sentence is a warning for us not to fall into this practice.
So we're being warned here by the Holy Spirit of God that we
could fall into this practice. And to some degree, the use of
the word master suggests that the one on the receiving end
must be in obedience to the master or one who seeks to control the
brethren. like somehow they're above us
as believers. Now, the one thing that will
keep us humble and will keep us to not do this is to remember
that we are all saved by the same Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are all redeemed by the same
blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all have the
same Father. We all are born again of the
same spirit. When Christ died on that cross,
he died for all of our sins, all the sins of his people. So
if I've been forgiven so much, which is an incredible amount,
and you too, we should be quick to forgive, shouldn't we? We
should be quick to show mercy and to show grace. Now we may
stew on something for a while, You know? We may. We may. I stewed
on something for about a month recently. Just stewed on it.
Then I text the person. But it took me a while. I had
to stew on it for a while. But you know what? The whole
time the Lord's teaching me. Mercy. Mercy, Wayne. Mercy. See, I'm no different
than you all. I suffer through the same things.
Oh, oh my. And so we are not to bow down
to these supposed people who put themselves in self-appointed
authority. Ecclesiastes says this, be not
righteous over much, neither make thyselves over wise. Why shouldst thou destroy thyself?
So we're not to be lord and over God's people. If we take the
place of master in this sense, we will receive the greater condemnation.
This is sin, and sin will run its course. It'll run its course. And what this sin brings forth
is pride and ingratitude. And it's not to be so for we
who are the people of God. We have much to be thankful about,
don't we? We have much to rejoice about. Much, much to rejoice. Christ has saved us. He's redeemed
us with his precious blood. Brother Richard, he parted out
of this world and instantly went to heaven to be in the presence
of the King face to face. Brother Marcus wrote me when
I told him about Brother Richard going home. He says, I can't
imagine that face to face. I can't even fathom that face
to face. Isn't that amazing? It's incredible. It doesn't ease the hurt and
the sorrow we feel, but we rejoice for Him, don't we? We rejoice
for Him. Oh my. So we're never to use
our tongues to lord over others. And we must guard against that.
We must guard against that. That's why this warning's here.
For us to guard against doing this. Assuming that our thoughts
are superior to others, because they're not. They're not. May God, the Holy Spirit, give
us grace to not be like this. Let's read verse 1 again, and
I'll take note of a couple more things in this verse. Be not many masters, knowing
that we shall receive the greater condemnation. Now note the word
brethren, so James is addressing born-again blood-washed saints.
This is not written to everybody in the world, this is written
to God's people. Because he says brethren. The Greek brings forth, the Greek
word for brethren here, I love this, brings forth unity. I can't explain the unity we
felt over the last year has been amazing. The unity that's, I
feel like we as a body have been united even more than we've ever
been before since I've been here. And it's been incredible. It's
been incredible to see the growth in the body, to see that unity
come about, and that love for one another. It's been absolutely
incredible. So the word here means unity.
It also means members of the same family. We are, aren't we? We're all members of the same
family. And we have the same Savior, the same Holy Spirit
who regenerated us, and we have the same God-given faith, don't
we? That centers upon Christ Jesus our Lord and Him alone.
And take note of the humility, though, that James brings forth
here. He lumps himself in with all the other believers with
the words, knowing that we. Look at that. He doesn't vault
himself over other brethren, he says, knowing that we shall
receive the greater condemnation. He's lumping himself in with
everybody. That's wonderful. That's absolutely wonderful.
So we see here again that the ground that the believers stand
on is level. We see it so clearly here because James himself put
himself saying we. He's not vaulting himself over
the brethren, is he? Not at all. And we see him bringing
forth this fact again in the next verse. Look at verse 2.
For in many things we offend all. Look at that. We. He's saying, I offend too. We
offend all. If any man offend not in word,
the same as a perfect man is able also to bribe of the whole
body. So again, verse 2, he uses the word note to denote, He uses
the word we to denote all born-again, blood-washed believers. And again,
this is inspired by God the Holy Spirit. You see, we're all guilty before
God, aren't we, in our natural state. And if it wasn't for the
grace of God, we'd all perish. I was talking
to someone this week, and they said, well, if God's all-powerful
like he is, Why doesn't he just restrain and stop all the sin
in the world? I said, well, I said, God is
all-powerful. He is all-powerful. He's got
all the power and the might. And I said, believe it or not,
right now he's restraining sin. I said, could you imagine what
sin would be like unrestrained? Could you imagine what it'd be
like if he just took his hand off a little wee bit? We saw that in World War II,
right? The atrocities that man can do to one another. My, oh
my. Praise God for restraining grace
and restraining sin. And then I went to say to the
person, I said, well, I said, if we all got what we deserve,
we'd all be in hell. And I don't want what I deserve. And they abruptly ended the conversation
on that topic right there. And proceeded to go to another
topic, which most people do. See, they won't face the fact
that they're sinners. And that's another thing I had
mentioned, that we're all sinners. The person I was talking to was
a sinner. We all deserve hell. But God shows mercy on his people. In Christ Jesus our Lord. And
so James, we see here, I love the fact that he said, for in
many things we offend all. I love the fact that he used
that word, we, because I know sometimes I offend people. I
don't try to. Now, the preaching of the gospel
will offend people without even, you know. But we don't seek to
offend people. That's not what we seek out to
do. And you know why James is including the we here? To keep
us from switching blames to other people. Because right away, when we read
this stuff, we say, oh, I know someone who, when I was in religion,
I'll tell you a story. When I was in religion, I'll
never forget this. I never forgot it. I was sitting there, and
this guy was popping off about things you had to do. And there
was a guy behind me. And I knew the guy was, you know,
we're all self-righteous and full of pride. And this guy,
he really, he was one of those guys that listened for other
people. And when the sermon was done,
he had a nephew, awesome guy, I got to know him, he was a neat
fellow, loved the Lord, but this guy turned around to me and said,
well I wish such and such had been here, that would have been
a real good message for them to hear. And I thought, you didn't even
hear anything. You were too busy picking away at the scab and
trying to think of what would be good for others, but you didn't
hear nothing. Now the message wasn't really
worthwhile hearing, because it told you what you had to do,
but still, just the fact that there's an illustration that
I can remember of someone bringing that forth. We never, this word
is for us. This word is for us, this scripture's
for us. These exhortations and admonitions
are for us. For God's glory and for our good. Even when it hurts. Even when
we read something and go, oh, it's for us. The Lord's just
chipping away parts of them corners of the rock, right? Remember,
he's polishing us and stone's being made ready. He's just chipping
away a little point there. He's just sanding it away on
us. Oh my. Because remember, when
we're placed in glory, right, stone made ready, there's no
hammer, no nothing. We're just put right in. Right
in the place. Oh my. So here, again, James is adding
we so that we don't shift the blame to other people. And we offend makes it clear
that this is not about someone else. James is saying we. We
offend. we offend. And again, we're warned to not
be many masters. And the phrase of verse 2 is
a general statement that sets up a particular distinction,
which is being sinners prone to a thousand falls and failures
a day, we cannot help but offend. And though we seek to please
the Lord and not offend others, we still do. We still do sometimes. And we sometimes say things that
offend. And this is where the tongue
is going to come into place. And remember, the tongue, I think
I'm out of time. Remember, the tongue is what
James is going to bring forth here, that these supposed masters
who lord over people, they use that tongue like a weapon. And it ought never to be so.
You know, people feel like you're walking on crushed glass around
them. And it'd never be so. I want us to come here and feel
the freedom and the liberty that we have in Christ. And I don't
want anyone lowered over. No one does that here, which
is a blessing. Lowered over anyone else. Because we're all just
saved sinners. We're saved by the grace of God.
You and I, who are believers, have been redeemed by that same
precious blood. When Christ cried, it is finished,
He cried that for us. He paid for all our sins. And
we say, hallelujah, right? Praise be to God. Look what He's
done. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. And if we remember
our place before the Lord, that we're just sinners saved by grace,
every one of us, we will not be prone to lord over others. And we will come together In
unity, as the brethren means, we will come together in unity,
which we do, and we will rejoice and praise our Savior for the
great things He has done for us. And then we'll go out and
we'll tell other people. We don't have to tell other people
what we do, do we? We don't have to say, well, I
read the Bible 50 times this week, and I prayed 100 times
this week, and I did this, and we all met together, and we prayed
1,000 times for everybody. I'm exaggerating, but I've heard
people in religion just say all these things. We don't have to
talk theology. All we have to do when we meet
people and the Lord opens the door, is tell them the great
things that the Lord has done for us. Is there anything better
that we can say than that Christ died for me, He paid for all
my sins, He saved me by His blood, He lived the perfect life that
I could never live? Is there anything better we can ever tell
anyone? So let us praise our Redeemer. And when the Lord opens
the door, let us tell others about the great things that God
has done for us. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your mercy and your grace. We thank you for allowing us
again to be able to come here together and to worship you in
spirit and truth. Oh Lord, what a glorious truth. Thou has saved thy people from
their sins. Jehovah, you who are God in the
flesh, has saved us from our sins. Oh Lord, we just thank
you and praise you for for giving us an understanding of your word,
and more so giving us an understanding of who you are, revealing yourself
to us. We never knew you. We had no
clue who you were. We had made up gods in our own
imagination who we thought you were, but they were nothing.
They were just figments of our imaginations, but praise be to
God, you've revealed yourself to us. All glory to you, Lord. Honor and praise and blessing.
We love you because you first loved us, in Jesus' name, amen.