Apostle James deals with six
major themes. First of all, he asks this question,
from whence come wars and fightings among you? In other words, the
first thing he deals with is this one question, and that's
all that he has to say in introducing that theme, strife and quarrels. among church members, among you.
That's what we're talking about. And we're acquainted with this
sort of thing. There's not any of us here, with the exception
of a few, that have not been involved in some sort of strife,
church strife, strife among believers, Christians, ranging anywhere
from violent church splits all the way down to hurt feelings. strifes and quarrels and discord
and misunderstandings, hurt feelings, failure to speak to one another,
failure to communicate with one another. This sort of thing,
quitting the assembly, getting mad and going and joining somewhere
else, that's strifes and quarrels and discord. And he asks this
question, where does it come from? Where does it come from? And then he gives the real cause
for this. It's not doctrine. For every
split in a church over doctrine, there are thousands that have
nothing to do with it. For every strife and quarrel
and misunderstanding that you have among believers, that has
something to do with the glory of Christ, you'll have a hundred
that have nothing whatsoever to do with the glory of Christ.
In fact, rarely do you ever have discord in the Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ where the glory of Christ is at stake in any
way, shape, form, or fashion. You go over your own strifes
and discords and quarrels and see whether the glory of Christ
had anything to do with it or how God's saved sinners had anything
to do with 99% of the time had nothing to do with it. And then
the next thing he deals with, the third thing, he deals with
the warfare that goes on in every one of us. I don't care who it
is, preacher, elder, deacon, church member, teacher. And that's
the warfare between pride and humility. Nobody here that doesn't
have their share of all of it. The warfare between pride and
humility. And then the fourth thing he
deals with, is the way to overcome this pride. Overcome these things
that cause strife and division. He gives us the cause and then
he tells us how to overcome and defeat these evil principles
that cause discord and strife between believers. How actually
to overcome it and to defeat it. And then he has some verses,
two verses, 11 and 12, that deal totally with gossip. gossip,
evil speaking, critical attitudes. And we have our share of that,
don't we? And then the last thing he deals with, verse 13 through
17, is my personal submission to the sovereignty of God, to
the providence of Almighty God. Now, if anybody doesn't have
any of these problems, you can be excused. I notice nobody's
leaving. That's good. All right, number
one, he asks the question, from whence comes wars, whence come
wars and fightings among you? Let's just look hard at that
one statement. Now, the Amplified version reads it this way, and
boy, that Amplified is a lot of help on this chapter. The
Amplified asks this question, what leads to strife between
believers? What leads to discord and feuds
among you? Now, all of us know these things
ought not to be. All of us know these things ought
not to be. You know, I hear people say, well, husband and wife have
their spat. They ought not to. Well, brothers
and sisters naturally fall out. They ought not to. That's so. These things ought not to be.
We have scripture after scripture which exhorts us to love one
another, not to spat, not to quarrel, not to fall out, not
to fuss, not to have discord. Scripture after scripture after
scripture that tells us to love one another, not fight with one
another, love one another. And there's no room for us excusing
this sort of thing. Temper tantrums flying off the
handle. an unforgiving spirit, that is
not in God's work. And it's not right for us to
excuse it. It's not right for us to fall
back on those old wise fables and adages. Well, I can't do
anything about it. The Bible tells us to be kind
to one another. as God, for Christ's sake, is
kind and forgives us. The Bible tells us to exercise
patience. It tells us to look not on our
own welfare, but on the welfare of others. It tells us deliberately
and definitely to give ourselves to preserving the unity of the
Spirit, doesn't it? And then in Psalm 133, listen
to this. Psalm 133, verse 1, listen to it. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious
ornament upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard that went down to the skirts of his garment. How beautiful. We ought not be satisfied with
anything less than that. Anything less than that. But
in spite of what we're taught, in spite of what we know to be
the right thing, we experience these misunderstandings and these
difficulties and these contentions and this strife. Now let's find
out the real cause for it. All right, here it is, here's
the answer, verse 1. Come they not hence, is not this
the reason, even of your lusts, that war in your members? We
are word poor. Did you know that? Word poor. What do I mean by that? I mean
when you saw that word lust, what's the first thing you thought
of? Well, you know what the first thing you thought of. And that's
the reason we're word poor. We take a word and we associate
it with one thing and we can't get off that one thing. But down
here in verse 5, it talks about the Holy Spirit lusting. Look
at verse 5. It says, "...the spirit that
dwelleth in us," that's the Holy Spirit, "...lusteth to envy."
So the word here, the word L-U-S-T-S here, is desires. Now, these strifes and discords
among you, here's the reason they come. They come even of
your desires that war in your members. You desire and have
not. You want and you have not. You
covet and you have not. Now then, the glory of the Redeemer
is not the cause of these strifes and discords and this confusion,
but these strifes and discords are fed from the carnal desires
and the carnal wishes in our members. The Amplified Version
reads this way. Now listen to it. Whence comes
these strifes and discords among you? Do they not arise from carnal
desires that are ever-warring in your bodily members? You are
jealous and you covet what others have. And as these desires, as
these wants go unfulfilled, you begin to hate that person. You
become murderers, and it says to hate is to be guilty of murder.
You burn with envy, and you burn with anger, and you're not able
to obtain the gratification that you seek, so it leads to a fight
and it leads to a quarrel. In other words, that person has
what you want. That person has succeeded where
you failed. That person is blessed where
you're not. And therefore these carnal desires
arise up in your heart, these wishes, these wants, And because
you cannot obtain these things, you grow angry with that individual.
He gets in your way. Now, from these verses, and I
took a good hard look at it, and from these verses and the
ones that follow, I judge this mainly refers to material and
physical advantages. Perhaps we're jealous of someone
who is more beautiful than we are. Perhaps we are jealous of
someone who financially is better off than we are. Perhaps we are
envious of a person who is more talented than we are. Perhaps
we are envious of a person who is more educated than we are.
Perhaps we are envious of a person who is more gifted than we are.
It could apply to any talent or good gift from God, but our
carnal nature wants what it does not have. Our carnal nature covets
what it does not have. And our carnal nature resents
those who have it. And that leads to hard feelings. Now, where do gifts and blessings
come from? Well, let's turn to 1 Corinthians
12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Turn over there just a moment
to verse 11. Where does any good, perfect
gift come from? It comes from God. All right,
look at 1 Corinthians 12, 11. It's talking about the gifts
of the Spirit. differing among members of the body of Christ.
Now listen to verse 11. But all these worketh that one
and selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he
will. In 1 Samuel chapter 2, the scripture
says the Lord maketh poor and the Lord maketh rich. The Lord
lifteth up and the Lord bringeth down. The Lord killeth and the
Lord maketh alive. Now, chapter 4 of James again,
let's look at it. Now, this strife and discord
and confusion among believers, where does it come from? It's
not over the doctrine of Christ. It's not over the glory of Christ.
It has nothing to do with the way God saves sinners. It's not
jealousy for the glorious name of Christ. These strifes and
discords are born right here in an envious nature. in a jealous
nature, in a covetous nature, in a nature that wants what it
doesn't have and covets what it doesn't have, perhaps what
another person does have. I heard a man say one time, if
you want to make an enemy, either have something, be something,
know something, or do something. Isn't that tragic? That certainly
ought not be in the house of God. Now, two charges are brought
against us. Look at verse 2. It says you
have not, the last line, you have not because you ask not. Murmuring and praying are not
generally found in the same heart, are they? We covet material blessings,
or we covet physical blessings, or we covet spiritual blessings,
or we covet gifts and talents. And God says you have not because
you ask not. If you were praying to God for
these things, you wouldn't be murmuring against God because
you didn't have these things. Envy and intercession are not
companions. They don't walk together. If
I'm an intercessor, I'm not an envier. If I'm a prayer, I'm
not a murmurer. I cannot praise God and murmur
against God at the same time. You have not because you ask
not. Maybe if you sought the Lord, if you asked, you would
receive. But then here's another charge brought against us, verse
3. Some of you You ask God to bless you financially, you ask
God to bless you materially, you ask God to bless you physically,
you ask God to bless you in all these ways, but listen to it,
you ask and you don't receive. Why? Because you ask amiss, because
you ask for the wrong purpose, because you ask with the wrong
motive. Your intention, look at it, that you may consume it
upon your own lust. That is, your intention is not
to use that material blessing for God's glory, but for your
good, and for your pleasure, and for your wishes, and for
your desires. Why do I want to be successful? For the glory
of God. Am I just as willing to fail for the glory of God?
Why do I want to be blessed materially? Just exactly why do I want God
to bless my business? That I might consume it on my
own lust or that I might use it for his glory. He said some
of you ask for these blessings and you don't get them because
you ask with the wrong motive and the wrong person. Your intention
is to use that gift or that blessing for your own lust or your own
desires or your own pleasure. You see what he's saying? You have not because you ask
not. Even sometimes when you ask you receive not because you
ask with the wrong motive you ask for the wrong purpose I'll
tell you to be able to pray for the glory of God. Now, that's
something else take just preaching a message. I Come up here to
preach and I asked God to bless my message why because I want
to be a good preacher Or because I want that man or woman boy
girl out there to understand how God saves sinners To ask
God to bless me as I preach in order that I don't want to fall
on my face, I don't want to fail, I don't want to preach a poor
sermon, I don't want people to go away saying, boy, he can't
preach worth a lick. I want them to go away saying, my, what a
preacher, what a great preacher, what a great sermon. I have no
right to ask God to bless me in preaching unless I have the
pure motive of the glory of Christ, isn't that right? We ask God
to make our children well when they're sick. Why do we ask it? We ask God to bless our efforts
and our business and why? The scripture tells us whatever
we do, we're to do it for the glory of God. This is what I've
got to find here. I've got to find the right motive. Isn't this our problem? This
is what he says, the strife and division and discord. Where is
it born? Where does it come from? It comes
from selfish, covetous, envious, jealous desires and lusts that
are in these natures of ours that cause a conflict with someone
else. These things ought not to be.
I've been in churches where musicians were at one another's throats.
Why? Because they were envious of one another, jealous of one
another. One wanted to sing, and felt like they could sing,
and they never got to sing. That's so rotten! And you have
places where there are preachers, two or three or four preachers
in the church, and they're jealous of one another and envious of
one another. The whole Barnett used to say, Kit and Caboodle
ought to be cut off from God. Whatever we do, do it for the
glory of God. And that's where these strifes
and discords and confusion, that's where it's all born. It's not
born. We might say we're contending
for the faith, we're contending for ourselves. That's what we're
contending for. We might say we're contending for the doctrine,
standing for the principles of the old faith and the old landmarks
and sounding a clear trumpet. No, we're not. We're not doing
anything in the world but promoting our old flesh. Isn't that right? Or else we could rejoice in one another. We could promote one another.
We could look on the welfare, not of ourselves, of one another.
We could wish even our failure for the glory of God and someone
else's success. We could sit quietly and we could
be instructed and taught instead of making teachers. Isn't that
right? Now look at verse 4. Ye adulterers
and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of this world
is enmity with God? Now, adulterers and adulteresses
is not literal here, it's figurative language, metaphorical language. Now, what is an adulterer? Well,
an adulterer is one who leaves his wife for another. The Scripture
says if you put away your wife and marry another, you commit
adultery. And adulterous is one who leaves her husband for another.
But he's calling believers adulterers and adulteresses. Now here is
what he's talking about. We become adulterers and adulteresses
in a spiritual sense when we leave the glory of God and set
our hearts and our affections upon the things of this world,
materialism, the blessings of this world, the pleasures of
this world, the luxury of this world, the things of this world.
Read on, it says that here. Know ye not that the friendship
of this world, when you leave Christ and enter into a relationship
with this world, The friendship of this world is enmity with
God. An immoderate love for material
things, for worldly honor and worldly praise, and a delight
in worldly company and conversation of worldly people constitutes
a conflict with God and constitutes spiritual adultery. Read on. Whosoever, therefore, will be
a friend of the world, is the enemy of God. In other
words, it ought to be enough for us to share his love. It
ought to be enough for us to share his fellowship. It ought
to be enough for us to share his grace. He's the complete
lover. He's the complete husband. It
ought to be enough for us to share his people. We cannot have
both. We cannot have both. Now verse 5 and 6 leads us to
the third theme in this chapter, the conflict between pride and
humility. Do you think that the scripture
saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Now here is the amplified version,
it says this, the Holy Spirit who dwells in us desires, this
is his desire, our whole heart for the glory of God. The Holy
Spirit who dwells within us desires our whole heart, is envious of
our whole affection. The Holy Spirit who dwells within
us is jealous of our total commitment to Christ. That's what God says,
I'm a jealous God. He said that to Israel. Now turn
to Galatians 5 verse 16. Let me show you something here.
Galatians 5 verse 16. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit lusteth against
the flesh. And these are contrary, the one
to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
In other words, the natural man is a strong force. We can't deny
this. The natural man loves the luxuries
and pleasures of this world. Let's don't deny it. There's
a nature within us that enjoys praise. There's a nature within
us that is filled with pride. There's a nature within us that
desires ease. There's a nature within us that
wants to conform. But there's also, if the Holy
Spirit dwells within us, a nature that loves God and hates sin. And the natural man, though a
strong force, can be defeated. For it says here in verse 6,
But he, the Holy Spirit, giveth more grace. He gives that grace
and that strength to overcome. And we're going to see in just
a moment how. But he gives that grace and that strength to whom?
To whom does he give it? He giveth it to the humble. John
Gill says this, God rejects those who trust in themselves that
they're righteous. God rejects them who trust in
themselves that they're holier than others. God rejects those
who say they have no need. God knows our frame. He knows
that we're dust. He knows our need. And when we
admit it, and when we confess it, and when we fall at his feet
as honest Seekers, after his grace, he gives it. He rejecteth
the proud, he giveth grace to the humble. We're all out of
the same pit, we're all out of the same flesh, and he gives grace to that person
who confesses it. Now, the way to overcome pride
And the way to defeat these evil principles which cause this strife
and Indian confusion among believers is given in the next four verses,
7, 8, 9, and 10. First of all, he says, submit
yourselves to God. Submit yourselves to the will
of God regarding gifts and talents. If God be pleased to give me
the spirit of prayer, I'll be grateful. If he doesn't, I'll
be grateful. That's the way we must feel. If God be pleased to give me
the gift of understanding, I'll be grateful. If he doesn't, I'll
be grateful. Submit yourselves to the will
of God regarding worldly things. If God be pleased to continue
to keep me under financial pressure, then I need to rejoice. If God
be pleased to prosper me and expand my worldly goods, I submit
to God." Submit yourself to God. Leave it to God to make you what
he would have you to be. Leave it to God to prosper or
empty you. Leave it to God to honor or humiliate
you. Leave it to God. Submit to the
will of God. Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane
wrestled and cried out and prayed. sweat great drops of blood, and
came to this conclusion in his holy submission to his Father,
If it be thy will, let this cup pass. Nevertheless, not as I
will, but thy will be done." That's submission to the will
of God. You know, David one time left
the He left the kingdom, they ran him off. His son Absalom
led a rebellion against him and he was going out of the kingdom
and some fellow there was sitting on a rock and making fun of him,
making fun of David. And one of David's generals there
said to David, he said, you give me the word and I'll cut his
head off. And David said, you leave him alone. If it's the
will of God for him to humiliate me and If it's God's will for
him to charge me, if it's God's will for him to carry on this
way, then I ought to be man enough and filled with grace enough
not to get angry with him. Submit yourselves to the will
of God. Wouldn't that cut down a lot of strife? Submitting to
the will of God. Maybe God sent that agitator. Maybe God sent that trial. Maybe that person, and no maybe
about it, that person is the instrument, and even Satan is
an instrument in God's hands. Satan couldn't touch Job without
God's permission. And we get angry at these second
causes. This person upsets us, and that
person takes our time, and that person starts a quarrel, and
that one does. These are just second causes.
Why do you want to pick a fight with those second causes? God
sent them to try you. And you fail the test. I, we,
fail the test. God said to that little messenger,
he said, go down and agitate old Lester a little bit. And
he goes down and agitates Lester, and Lester gets mad at him. God
said, well, he failed. And he's just wasting time bothering
him anymore. He can't grow. When we get mad
at these second causes, submit yourselves to the will of God.
Or at least don't. Resist the devil. He'll flee
from you. Now, I hear preachers. Talk about hand-to-hand conflict
with Satan. Uh-uh. I Just can't I can't quite
take that. I You know the angel of God wouldn't
wouldn't challenge him The only one who is engaged in any hand-to-hand
conflict with Satan is our Lord the angel Gabriel said the Lord
rebuked they I'll tell you what this is here and This is resisting
the influence of Satan. In other words, for example,
when covetousness rises in your heart, you recognize it. When
it rises in your heart, that's not the Spirit of God, that's
the Spirit of the devil. Resist that thought. When envy
rises in your heart, that's not God, that's the Spirit of the
devil. Resist that envy. When jealousy rises in your heart,
resist that jealousy. When wrong thoughts about other
people rises in your heart, and these thoughts do, they come
up in our hearts, and where we run into trouble is when we just
let them come on out, you know, when we let them take over, when
we let them dominate. We could think of a dozen illustrations,
but when When someone does us wrong, and we grow angry or envious
or jealous, and if we don't resist that and press it down, then
it takes over, and the first thing you know, you've got a
conflict. But what he's saying here is, submit yourselves to
God, and when this thing arises, you'll recognize and say, Lord,
that's not right. That's not right. And then look
at the next line. Draw nigh to God. Draw nigh to
God. When do we draw night of God?
When we think it out for ourselves, when we think, well, we've arrived,
you know, we're real spiritual dynamos and we're real spiritual
dynamite, we'll handle this thing, we'll straighten this whole thing
out. No, that's not drawing night of God. A man draws night of
God when he shuts his mouth and opens the Word. That's when he
draws night of God, when he just shuts his mouth and opens the
Word. I tell you when a man draws nigh
to God, when he shuts his mouth and approaches the throne. A
man draws nigh to God when he shuts his mouth and comes to
the house of God to worship. A man draws nigh to God when
he seeks out the companionship of God's people. A man draws
nigh to God when he rests in God, when he trusts in God. Look
at verse 9. Be afflicted and mourn and weep.
and let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness."
When? When you're drawn out of God.
When you're drawn out of God. This is what the old-timers said,
as you're drawn out of God, drawn out of God lowly in spirit. When
you're drawn out of God, drawn out of God in reverence and fear.
If you call on him who is your Father past the time of your
sojourning in fear and trembling. and humble yourself in the sight
of God. And you know what the consequence
will be? He'll lift you up. He'll give you victory. He'll give you victory. Now, this is what he says. Where
do these strife and conflicts and problems come from? They
don't come over doctrine, they don't come over the gospel, they
don't come over God's glory. Friction and conflict are born
of our own jealousy and envy and covetousness and and our
our pride our Reaching out for what we don't have and and and
feeling hardship towards one who does And the reason you don't
have is because you don't ask and and when you do ask you ask
that you might consume it on your own lust but these problems
I recognize God says that they're in your heart. They're natural
to men and But I've given you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy
Spirit will give you grace. But he'll give grace to that
man who is humble, that man who submits himself to God, that
man who has no cause to fight but God's cause, who has no honor
to defend but God's honor. Let's quit defending ourselves.
What do you say? I made up my mind about that some time ago. You take even today, the men
talking in the study, about I give you three or four illustrations
just today a lady said well that that fella's not he preaching
error somebody else says I couldn't go to that church they they're
not preaching there so he's not we've got no honor to defend
he's right we ain't nothing you know when people start honoring
one another that's just one worm honoring another one that's all
in the world it is just one worm honoring another we ain't nothing
The guys did right. We are nothing. We got no cause to defend but
His and no honor to defend but His and no glory to seek but
His. Submit yourselves to God. Let
Him bombast you. And thank God for it. And praise
God that you're worthy to have somebody spit in your face. There
ain't everybody that's that worthy. Thank God you're worthy to suffer
for Christ's sake. That's what Paul said. But when
we feel these jealousies and envies and wrong attitudes, I
recognize it. You feel it coming up. That's
the time right then. That's the time to resist it.
And if you resist it, it'll go right back down. He'll flee from
you and then draw nigh to God. Lord, I need some help. I need
some strength. This is not right, I'm not right,
I'm afflicted, I'm mourning, I'm weeping, let your laughter
be turned to mourning, let your so-called joy turn to heaviness,
and humble yourself in the sight of God, he'll lift you up, he'll
lift you up. Here is the next gossip, evil-speaking,
critical attitude. Listen to this. I had to work
on this now, this is not an easy verse, you look real hard at
it and see Let's see about it. Speak not evil one of another,
brethren, he that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his
brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. If
you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
Now let's see what we can do with that. Now listen, let me
make some comment. Speak not evil one of another. Now this is a problem, this is
a problem that every one of us have. This is an evil of which
everybody is too guilty. And that is speaking of a person
in a way that we would not speak if he is sitting there. Now,
that's a pretty good test through which to put if Charlie Miller
and Jeff Thornberry and Cecil are talking about me or talking
about Jim Spence. They ought not say anything that
they wouldn't say if Jim was sitting right there. Now that's
a good test. But we're too prone, rather than
to praise a person in his absence, is to point out his faults. Rather
than to seek to praise his virtues, to point out his failures. I
don't know why, but that's human nature. Human nature would rather
hear something bad than something good. Did you know that? Rather than repeating the good,
human nature loves to shock somebody with the bad. But we never, and
we know this is true, we never elevate ourselves by discrediting
someone else. Never. Gossip is wrong whether
it's true or false. Did you know that? You say, but
I'm telling you the truth, it's still wrong. It's still wrong
to speak critically and to speak evil of someone you love, and
would we speak evil of them if we really loved them? Gossip
and criticism is not acceptable because it's true, any more than
it's acceptable because it's false. Our words should be guided,
someone said, not only by truth, but by love. Think about that
a moment. Our words should not only be
guided by truth, Because it's true doesn't mean you're supposed
to tell it. Let it pass through the gate, not only of truth,
is it true? And is it kind? But can I say
it in love? And boy, if it can get through
all three of those, say it by all means. Say it by all means. Turn to Leviticus 19. Leviticus
chapter 19. Look at verse 16. Leviticus 19,
verse 16. Thou shalt not go up and down
as a tail-bearer among thy people. Thou shalt not do that. That's
a commandment of God. And listen, if you will, turn
to Proverbs 11. Listen to this script, Proverbs 11, verse 13.
A tail-bearer reveal its secrets, but he that
is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. What does love do? Love doesn't expose, it covers
a multitude of sins. Two things here that helped me
a great deal, I got these from someone else, Thomas Manton,
I believe it was. Always speak of a person in a
way that you would be perfectly willing to speak if he were present. And then secondly, gossip and
criticism and speaking evil is never acceptable because it's
truth. Our words should not be just
guided by truth, but by love, but by love. I took a hard look
at this next line, "...he that speaketh evil of his brother,
and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth
the law." What does that mean? Well, here's the best help I
can give you on that. Will you listen and weigh this? In speaking evil of a person,
a brother, that's what he's talking about here, or judging a brother
in a critical spirit, it amounts to this, we are usurping We are
usurping God's office. We are performing an act of power
that does not belong to us. We are advancing into the chair
of judge, jury, and senator. We are assuming the chair of
authority. Paul asked this question, Who
art thou that judges another man's servant? Well, now that's true. He that
speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother. That's
what it means to, in other words, when we are judging a person's
spirituality or his conduct, and we're speaking in a critical
fashion, speaking evil, then we're taking the place of God.
We're assuming that we have all the facts, we are taking the
chair of power and authority, we're usurping God's authority,
we're sentencing that person, we're judging that person, we
are trying that person, we're condemning that person as if
we were God. All right? And we speak evil
of the law. Now what does that mean, we judge
the law? Listen to this. Listen carefully. The law forbids
rash judgment. The law forbids gossip. Thou shalt not be a tale-bearer
among thy brethren. The law forbids speaking evil
of another. So in going ahead and doing it,
I go right ahead and do it. And in doing it, we in effect
are judging the law. And we're saying that that law
is not worthy to be obeyed. We are deciding this. We're taking
upon ourselves to decide which is the greatest law, the one
that the brother broke or the one I'm now breaking. You see
what I'm saying there? That helped me a great deal right
there. Now watch this. Let's look at it again. See if
I can get it down in where we are. Speak not evil one of another. he that speaketh evil of his
brother, and judgeth his brother." I feel so convicted I want somebody
to stand up and say, let me speak something in his favor. Let me
be his attorney. Let me be his pleader. While
you fellows are tearing him down, let me be his defender. Everybody
is entitled to a public defender. Who shall declare his generation?
But when we tear down that dear brother or sister, we are becoming
judges. We're assuming God's office,
God's throne. We don't know the heart, we don't
know the circumstances, God knows all these things. Let's leave
him to God. But what the scripture is saying
here is that when we're doing that, we're speaking evil of
the law and we're judging the law. That is, we're doing this.
The law forbids what I'm doing. The law forbids what I'm doing.
The law forbids gossip. The law forbids speaking evil.
But I go right ahead and do it. And what I'm doing is judging
which law is more important, the one that brother broke or
the one I'm now breaking in speaking evil, in not loving him, in not
forgiving him, in not praying for him, in not showing mercy
to him. I'm breaking God's law too. Now, verse 12 says there's
one lawgiver. who's able to save and to destroy,
who art thou that judges another? In other words, one only is the
judge who has the power of life and death, and we're not to assume
his office. We'd leave that totally in his
hands. I hope that helped. That helped me a great deal there.
And it's convicting. It's something we need to work on
a great deal, a whole lot. Go back to that Last chapter
we studied before, chapter 3, the tongue is a fire, a world
of iniquity, defileth the whole body. We sin more with the tongue
than any other organ of our body, any other instrument of the flesh,
our tongue. Now a little comment is needed
on these verses. This is submission to the providence
of God. Let me just read what the Amplified
Bible says on the next few verses. Just listen to this, would you?
Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we'll go into such and
such a city and we'll spend a year and we'll carry on our business
and sell and make money. You don't know the least thing
about tomorrow or whether there will even be a tomorrow. What
is the nature of your life? You are really but a wisp of
vapor. You are a puff of smoke. You are visible for a little
while, and then you disappear. You ought to say, if the Lord
is willing, we shall live and do this or that thing. But as
it is, you boast in your presumption and your self-conceit, and all
such presumption is sin. So any person who knows this
and does it not, to him it's sin.