I'd like for you, if you will,
to turn back with me today to the letter of James, chapter
four. Today we are looking at The last
part of this chapter, beginning with verse 11. 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. But if thou judge the law, thou
art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's one lawgiver,
who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another? Go to now, you that say, today
or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there
a year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas you know not what
shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is
even a vapor. that appeareth for a little time
and then vanisheth away. For that you ought to say, if
the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now
you rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. There are two subjects in these
verses that I've just read that I want us to consider this morning.
I do not like to hear any preacher declare that any passage of scripture
is relevant to us today. I just don't care to hear that.
It sounds like he's saying that there are some parts of the scripture
which are not relevant for us. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. and is profitable for doctrine,
that is for teaching, for correction, for reproof, for instruction
in righteousness. God has given us. You have in
your hands, just now if you have a Bible, you have in your hands
a perfect rule of faith and practice. You don't need anything else.
Now I thank God for good books. But this is the good book. This is the best book of all
books, the Word of God, the Bible. It is a perfect rule of faith. That is what we are to believe.
What you must believe, you have it in your hands. What you must
believe about God, about this world, about eternity, about
Christ, about yourself, everything that you need to know you have
in your hands. The Word of God is a perfect
rule of our faith, what we must believe, and also practice how
we must live. Our practice grows out of what
we believe. One of the things that we see
in our day and in our country, we see the Morals have decayed
to such a degree and people ask the question, why? It goes back
to what has been preached in this country over the last hundred
years. What it sounded for from the
pulpits of our land, men lying on God, men presenting a God
that doesn't hardly even resemble the God of the Bible. And people
have drank this in, have received this teaching about God, which
is not from the word of God. And as we've believed and our
country has believed, you're talking about dumbing down. Remember
that phrase, dumbing down America? They talk about that in the schoolhouses. But I tell you, it's happened
in the churches. It's happened in the churches
because men who claim to be called of God have departed from the
Word of God, not studying the Word and preaching the Word,
declaring what God has said, depending too much and preaching
too much to please society and the norms of society. God doesn't
change, and thank God his word doesn't change. The scripture
says, thy word, O God, is settled forever in the heavens. It's not going to change either.
So let's look at these two subjects that we find in these verses
that we've read this morning. And I look at them as two warnings
against two evils. Two warnings against two evils. The first, a warning about speaking
evil. A warning about evil speaking. The fact that three apostles,
three apostles warned about this same thing should tell us how
common it must be how easy a sin it must be to fall into, and
how we must guard against it. Three apostles. First of all,
the apostle Paul. In Ephesians 4, he said, let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you. And he wrote to Titus, that he
should declare to those that he preached to, speak evil of
no man. Speak evil of no man. And Peter, in his first epistle,
he said, wherefore laying aside all malice, all guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speakings. All evil speaking is to be laid
aside by believers, by you and me. We profess to be God's children. We are exhorted from the Word
of God in several places, and also our Lord dealt with this
in his Sermon on the Mount. But we are to lay aside all evil
speaking. But I want to say this. I believe
that James is warning especially here about a particular kind
of evil speaking. I say that because he already
in chapter three had told us that in many things we all offend,
and then he warned about the tongue, how the tongue is a little
member, but no man can control it. But now if you notice in
these verses, if you look again at verse number 11, he mentions
evil, speak not evil one of another brethren. He that speaketh evil of his
brother judgeth his brother. Speaks evil of the law, judges
the law. But if thou judge the law, thou
art not a doer of the law, but a judge. In these verses, he
mentions speaking evil of a brother, speaking evil of the law, judging
the law, and that there is only one lawgiver. I think, as I thought
about this, remembering that this letter was originally written
to Jewish believers, those who were the natural descendants
of Abraham who had believed the gospel. And I believe it was
hard for many of them to separate the old dispensation from the
new dispensation. I want you to look back to Romans
chapter 14 with me. This is what I believe James
is especially warning believers against, speaking evil of a brother,
judging the law. Now, James in this letter had
already mentioned the perfect law of liberty. What is that? That's the gospel. That's the
gospel, the perfect law of liberty. That law, the gospel, freed man
from what the apostle Peter called a yoke, a yoke. He said the law of Moses. He's
talking about that old dispensation, that old economy. Now remember
this, there's only one covenant of grace. And everyone who has
ever been saved from the first man that the Lord saved until
the last man that God saves, man or woman, has been saved
because God chose them and gave them to Christ in a covenant
of grace before the foundation of the world. And Christ received
them and agreed to be and stand as their surety. And he came
into this world as a surety of this new or everlasting covenant,
and he satisfied God for his people all that God requires
and all that a sinner needs in order to be just before God,
the Lord Jesus Christ has finished that work. And that righteousness
is imputed unto everyone who believes. Every child of God,
no matter if you lived in the days of Methuselah, the days
of David, the days of the apostles, today, or to the Lord Jesus Christ
comes again. Everyone who's been saved has
been saved in the same way, by grace through faith, through
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only been
His blood, never the blood of animals that took away sin. It's only been His blood that
has effectually been that one offering that God has accepted
for the salvation of His people. But there have been various economies
or various dispensations, and we think of two in particular,
the Old Testament and the New Testament. the old dispensation
and the new dispensation. And believers who lived under
that old dispensation, that law which was given at Mount Sinai,
Peter referred to it as a yoke, as a yoke. You know what a yoke
is? Put a yoke on an animal to have
that animal work. to be serviceable and plowing
or pulling a wagon or something like that. It was a yoke and
the Apostle Paul called it a yoke of bondage. A yoke of bondage. That old dispensation, it had
its holy days. It had its fastings. It had dietary
rules. It had even It even concerned
the cloth that your clothes were made of. It had to be of one
particular wool. It couldn't be wool and silk
mixed together. It had to be one. You couldn't
plow in your field with a horse and an ox together pulling. I mean, it was a yoke. It was
a yoke. You've all heard the saying,
that people strain an ant and swallow a camel? Our Lord used
that terminology, didn't he? And he spoke of the Pharisees,
the religious leaders, because the law said this, every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten. But here
you've got a pot filled with water and it sets out all night. And you know little animals and
insects and things like that might just get into that pot
of water. And so they'd put a cloth over it and pour. They would
strain the water to make sure that they obeyed this law, that
they were not guilty of taking into their body some little gnat. It makes me think of preaching.
and having a fly or a mosquito or something fly into your mouth.
I've had that happen. Preaching outside. Lance, I'm
sure you've had that. Preaching outside. They had to be so careful. It
was a yoke. You know, they were saved. Those
who were saved were saved by grace through faith, just like
we are, but they had to live in bondage to that Old Testament
law. They would strain it a gnat.
The Pharisees did. They would strain it a gnat.
They would make sure they didn't take into their body a gnat,
but they would devour a widow's house. They'd take advantage of orphans. They were religious but lost
when our Lord pointed that out to those Pharisees. in our text
here in Romans chapter 14, not our text, but I wanted to bring
us to this place to see that in the early days of the New
Testament church, Jewish believers might, and they did. The whole letter of Hebrews,
we realize, was written to encourage Jewish believers that you've
got something much better than what you're leaving in Judaism.
Something much better. Here in Romans, Paul had to write
to a Gentile church. But when you read the last chapter
and read those names that he saluted, you realize there are
Jews and there are Gentiles that made up the membership of the
church at Rome. And some, him that is weak in
the faith, receive you, but not to doubtful disputations. Don't receive a brother just
so you can argue with him and fight with him, and he may not
see things exactly as you do, and you may not see things exactly
as he does. Receive him, yes. If he's a weak
brother, receive him. Love him. Encourage him. God'll
teach him. God'll show him. The first time
he walks in the door, you're not, are you a superlapsarianist
or sublapsarian? What do you believe? Most people
don't know what that means. The preacher might, he may not.
Every time I think about it, I've got to go read it again
and see who's the sub and who's the super. And it all has to
do with things that took place in eternity before the world
began, and the order of God's decrees. You may think you just know it,
got it down to a jot, and a tittle, and you're so right, and maybe
someone else doesn't see it quite like you do. He's still a believer
in Christ. He still loves the Lord as you
do. And here Paul says, next, for
one believeth that he may eat all things. Now, under the law
of Moses, you couldn't eat all things. You couldn't eat spare
ribs, barbecued spare ribs. You couldn't eat that. You couldn't
eat anything that came from pork. I'm not sure if you could even
eat shrimp, shellfish. Couldn't eat oysters. I mean,
there's just a number of things. You read the law. Paul, he presents
a case of a brother who has freedom. He realizes that he's not under
that yoke of bondage. He doesn't live under that yoke.
He was never a Jew. He was never called to live in
Judaism. And another brother, he's weak. He's, I guess, a vegetarian,
eateth herbs. Well, let not him that eateth
despise him that eateth not, and let not him that which eateth
not judge him. There it is, judged. Speak evil. Don't speak evil of your brother.
Don't judge your brother. Because when you judge your brother,
you're judging the law. You're judging the perfect law
of liberty, that God has given believers liberty in these things,
that we're not under that old dispensation. Who art thou that
judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or falleth, yea, he shall be holding up. Aren't you thankful
for that? God's gonna hold him up. God's
going to hold you up. You say, I'm not sure if I can
hold on. The important thing is, he's going to hold on to
you. If salvation depended in one iota on what we can do, we'd
be goners. We'd be lost, each and every
one of us. No, he's able. He's able to hold up. his people. That is, God is able
to make him stand. Don't be judging him. Don't be
critical and speaking evil of him because he doesn't see everything
just like you do. And turn with me to Colossians,
Colossians chapter 2. He may not have the same light
that you have. You may have more light. Colossians chapter 2, beginning
with verse 14, the apostle says, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us. Now, at the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he blotted out those ordinances which were against
us. And he's speaking about that
ceremonial part of the law, no doubt. the law that God had given
to Moses. Blotted out the handwriting of
ordinance that was against us, which was contrary to us, which
made life a drudgery, if you please. And took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he
made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore
judge you in meat, what you eat or don't eat. Now under the law,
there are certain meats you couldn't eat, but you've been freed from
that yoke of bondage. But not everyone has the same
life. That's what I'm trying to say.
And I believe that's what James is speaking of, especially don't
speak evil of a brother Because you become a judge of the law,
not the Old Testament law, but the gospel law, the law of liberty. You become a judge of that. And
you decide what a man can eat and what he can't eat, what he
can drink and what he can't drink, what he can wear and what he
can't wear, and all of those things. in respect of a holy day or of
the new moon. Every month began with a new
moon under the Jewish calendar, their religious calendar. They
had two calendars, they had a civil calendar and they had a religious
calendar. And the religious calendar, every
month began with a new moon, a full moon, and it was a day
of worship. It was a Sabbath day, a day of
worship. And some people, though they
had been raised in that and the Lord had saved them, they were
having a hard time getting away from that. And there was feast
days. Remember the Feast of Tabernacles
and the Feast of the Passover and various feasts, three feasts
every year where every male Israelite had to go to the to Jerusalem
to worship God. Don't let anyone judge you in
these things. Or of the Sabbath. Now you notice,
I want to call attention to this. The word days, plural. You see that's been added by
the translators. Or of the Sabbath. Now, there
is no question there were Sabbath days. Besides, there was a seventh-day
Sabbath, and there was a Sabbath at the beginning and ending of
those feast days. There were seven-year Sabbaths. There were, the year of Jubilee,
49-year Sabbath. I mean, there was a lot of Sabbaths,
no question about that under the law. But this is singular
from what I've read and what I've been able to ascertain.
This was singular. Let no man judge you concerning
meat or drink or respective and holy day or new moon or the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a type. It was a type. What does Sabbath
mean? It means rest. Rest. You hear sometimes, and one of
my favorite authors, Arthur Pink, he believed in a Christian Sabbath. I don't see that in the word
of God at all. I know the term is not there.
I don't believe that Christ changed the seventh day to the first
day as a Sabbath in the sense that they had to observe that
day. What I do believe and what the scriptures do reveal to us
is that Christ is my Sabbath. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He's
my rest. He's my Sabbath. You know, these reformed people,
especially, Many of them, at least, I should say. They try
to impose a Sabbath on us and say that, well, Sundays, the
Sabbath today are in this dispensation. The Bible doesn't say that. Now
you say, well, and you talk to a seven day Adventist, they'll
tell you, well, some Pope changed it. Some Pope changed it from
the seventh day to the first day. No, my friends, God's people
in the New Testament began worshiping every day of the week, but evidently
the first day of the week was special because Paul gave instructions
to the church at Corinth to receive their collections, their offerings
on the first day of the week. And the reason we worship today
on the first day of the week, this is the Lord's day. He arose
on what day? The first day of the week. And
I'm thankful that we have a Sunday. If you've ever lived in a country,
and many of you probably have, where there had really been no
Christian influence. And you get up on Sunday, it's
just like Thursday, just like Wednesday. And the sad thing
is, it's become like that in our country. I heard a man recently,
he graduated from high school in 1956, and he was speaking
to a group of young people and explaining to them how it was
in this country when he graduated from high school. He said everything
was closed on Sunday. Most churches had Sunday morning
service, Sunday evening service, and a Wednesday night service.
And a school, Sally, a school or school district would not
dare have anything on a Wednesday night. Why? Because the churches met for
prayer meeting. There was, and the people he
was talking to, young people, they couldn't believe it. They
couldn't believe how things had changed and what, 70 years in
this country, how things have changed. And I don't believe
anyone would think they've changed for the better, do you? I sure
don't. Well, don't be speaking evil.
That's what James is saying, don't be speaking evil. And I
go back to my text about someone that is a brother and maybe doesn't
have the, light and liberty that you have, the wisdom that God
has given you. But I want you to notice, and I want to deal with verse 12. There's one lawgiver. Who's that? That's God. That's not, in our
country, we have a legislative branch of our government. They
make the laws. But God's law supersedes all
laws that men make. And man may make a law, but if
it's against God's law, God's people must obey God. It's sad to me to see how these
people that are for abortion just think because they have
a right, so-called, a woman has a right to commit murder. It's sad that we're living in
a day like that, isn't it? In a country like that. And I've
tried, and I think I've been successful over the years, I've
tried to be apolitical. I wanna preach the gospel here,
but I am, concerned about our country and the way that things
are going. And I do believe that as believers,
we had better, believers had better wake up because they'll be coming after us next,
like that Lutheran pastor said in Germany. Started off, it was the Jews.
Went along, it was the Christians. And the same thing, our country's
headed in the same direction. Now we can differ on some things,
but not on things that God says are wrong and God says are right. I mean, it's, and I, I just believe that As the scripture
says that we should open our mouth for the dumb, for those
that are not able to speak for themselves, and babies in the
womb are not able to speak for themselves. And we should open
our mouths. We should let people know that
that's not right, that Christians don't do that. That's not up for debate. I don't
care if the Pope tells the President he's a good Catholic, he may
be. But I tell you what, you can be a good Catholic and still
go to hell. You can be a good Baptist and
still go to hell. It's more than that, isn't it? It's believing Christ and following
Christ, what he has revealed to us in his word. Look at that
last verse, verse 12. There's one lawgiver who is able
to save and to destroy. And I'm so thankful that is God. He's able to save and he does
save. And he saves man by the blood
of his son. And he saves man in such a way
that his law is honored. He saves man in such a way that
his law is honored. and fulfilled, and that is through
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He sent his son into this world
to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of sons. God is able to save, but notice
that last part, he's able to destroy, and he will. He will destroy all those who
are not found in His Son, Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus said,
fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul, but rather kill him which is able to destroy both
body and soul in hell. I'm not going to go on with that
second point because I couldn't do it justice. I pray that the Lord would use
His word today to speak to each and every one of us and to draw
us closer to Him.