Good morning. Once again, church family.
If you have your Bibles, if you would turned to James chapter 4
or type in your devices, James chapter 4.
And this morning we're going to be in verses 9 to 12.
The past two weeks we've only been doing 2 verses at a time
because they've been pretty dense passages and this morning
we're going to double that. We're going to get the four
verses. James 49 to 12:00.
Let me read the text, open us in a word of prayer, and then we'll
jump into the sermon this morning.
James chapter 4, beginning in verse 9.
Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the
Lord, and He will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one
another, brothers. The one who speaks against the
brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and
judges the law. But if you judge the law, you
are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
There is only one law giver and judge, he who was able to save
and to destroy. But who are you to judge your
neighbor? Let's pray for this morning as
we get to a text that deals with the topic of contrition and
deals with the topic of of judging one another.
Lord, I pray that you would give us a broken and contrite heart
this morning, Lord, That you would help us to see what a gift
of grace it is when we are able to be broken over our sin.
That it is not meant to be foreign to us.
That we are not to be a stranger to brokenness.
That we are to feel comfortable in this place, not that we
should stay there. Lord, help us to to be a people
who receive and freely receive the forgiveness and the love
that are so abundant at your feet.
But on the path to getting there, God, would you help us to
not be strangers to the road of contrition.
I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. I wonder if a counselor has ever
told their client, or if a parent has ever told their
child, or if a pastor has ever told his congregation.
Be miserable. You should be miserable.
We live in a society where feelings are everything, aren't
they? That's the society we live in.
Feelings are everything. They even supersede truth in our
society. We go to counseling, we take
medication, we seek out friends, we perhaps go to church, we
listen to music, we watch TV. We do all these things to
console our emotions and the effort that we would feel good.
We seek out things that will make us feel better, feel happy.
So what do we do when we come to the apostle James and he tells
us be miserable, be wretched? I wonder if James is the type of
friend we would call when we need some affirmation.
Maybe not. So what is James saying here?
What is he getting at? That's what I hope to clarify
this morning. So as we look at the text this
morning, I, I, I have woven together the exposition and the
application together. So they will, we won't have
separate sections for them. They'll be woven together.
And let's look at this section by section.
Let's start in verse 9A where James writes to us, Be wretched
and mourn and weep. Now last week we had looked at 5
imperatives that James gives and two verses.
And this morning we're going to look at six more imperatives
that he gives in the first 3 verses of our passes.
This morning, three of those six imperatives all occur in verse
9A, that here they are #1 be wretched #2 mourn #3 weep.
Let's look at those individually #1 be wretched.
This is the only time this verb is used in the New Testament.
Here's a Greek definition of it. To experience distress, to
endure sorrow, to be miserable. Now I want you to think about
this. This is a command.
This is in the imperative mood. It's not every day that somebody
commands you be miserable. Now, why would James tell them
to do this? Why would he command the church
to do this? We'll see in just a minute.
The second imperative is this morn.
This verb is used 10 times in the New Testament.
The Greek verb is defined as this to experience sadness as a
result of some condition or circumstance.
And the third imperative this morning is weep.
This Greek verb is actually used 40 times in the New Testament
and it simply means to cry. Now here's the question that I
had, and maybe you have this morning.
James had previously said to us in James chapter one, verse 2,
to count it all joy. My brothers, when you meet
trials of various kinds, count it all joy.
So why did the man who exhorted the Church to count everything
as joy, just a few chapters later, command them to feel
miserable, to mourn, and to weep?
Why would he do that? And I think that the reason is
actually given to us through the wisdom of the author of
Ecclesiastes. If you remember in Ecclesiastes,
he said there is a time to weep and a time to laugh.
There's a time to mourn and a time to dance.
And James is basically saying to the church, church body, this is
not or churches, this is not the time to laugh and to dance.
This is the time to weep and to mourn.
This is a time to weep and mourn.
Weep and mourn over what? Why is he commanding them to
weep and to mourn? They are to weep and mourn over
their sin, over the sin. If you remember, we've been
looking at that. There are some in the church who
have become friends with the world.
They have grown comfortable with the world.
They have propped their feet up on the coffee table of the
world. James calls them sinners.
He calls them double minded. And he's exhorting these people,
these people, these particular people to feel miserable, to
weep and to mourn over their sin.
Now, this does raise a few questions, doesn't it?
I had four and we're looking at 4 questions.
You may have more, but I wrote down 4 questions that I that I
thought of when I was thinking about this.
Number one, is there any other biblical precedent for doing
this? Is there any other biblical
precedent for this? The reason I asked this question
is because we all know that people can have different
personalities. We all know that people can have
different dispositions, right? Some of us are serious people.
Some of us are more playful people.
Some of us like sad music. Some of us only like happy
music, right? I'll give you one example.
Like I every week I kind of, I come up with a list of sermon
titles and I'll go to Lauren. I'll ask her like, which one's
your favorite, right? And I gave her a list and one of
them was be miserable. She reads and she goes.
She looks at me seriously. Safe to say she didn't pick that
title. I picked that title.
Is James just a melancholy type of guy?
You know, is he just one of those guys who just likes he's
like very serious and just you know, he's always wearing black,
maybe has eyeliner and eyeshadow on and it's just or you know,
like is that, is that who James is?
Is there any other biblical precedent for this?
Yes. I'll give you 2 examples.
A Matthew 54, Jesus says blessed are those who mourn, for they
shall be comforted. Now certainly Jesus may be
referring to those who mourn over death and loss.
I think that's true. But many scholars believe that
when Jesus says blessed are those who mourn, he may
specifically intend to hear blessed are those who mourn over
their sin, for they shall be comforted.
Trust family. It is a great blessing of the
Lord to be able to feel broken over your sin.
It is a blessing. B Here's another example, First
Corinthians 52, the apostle Paul says, and you are arrogant.
Ought you not rather to mourn? Do you remember the context
there In First Corinthians 52, there is a man in the Church of
Corinth that had his father's wife, whether it's his
stepmother or is, you know, we don't know the situation, but he
has his father's wife. And the church is happy about
this. Why?
Because they think it's a symbol of their freedom in Christ.
It had been reported to him. And and they're arrogant.
Like look at us. Look at how free we are in
Christ that we even we even accept a brother in our church
who has his father's wife. And Paul says you should be
mourning over this. Paul is rebuking the church that
instead of privately boasting it of freedom in Christ, they
should be mourning over this man's sin.
So yes, there is biblical precedent.
This is not just a James thing. This is a Bible thing.
That's the first question #2 should we feel bad for our sin?
You know, like we all can maybe agree we should confess our sin.
But should I feel bad for my sin?
Should I feel bad? I asked this question because I
have been around Christians. I've been around many
Christians, including pastors, who have said in so many terms
that we shouldn't feel bad for our sin.
I have heard Christians give counsel.
I've listened to Christians where one person came, they were
in sin or they maybe done something.
They went and got counsel from somebody and the other person
said to them, hey, don't, don't feel bad.
Don't feel bad. You shouldn't feel bad.
And the the premise of their counsel is that God loves us, He
forgives us, He has mercy on us, His favor is upon us.
And brothers and sisters, those are all wonderfully true.
Praise God, those are all wonderfully true.
And they are not mutually exclusive with what James is
commanding the church to do. They're not mutually exclusive.
Last year I did a series on repentance, and I said that
repentance has three components. I literated them so we can
remember them. Confession, contrition and
change. Repentance needs to have
confession, contrition and change.
And here James is highlighting the contrition component of
repentance, contrition. And this contrition is so
important in repentance because confession of sin absent of
contrition is simply an acknowledgement of reality.
If we confess our sin without contrition of our sin, all we've
done is acknowledge reality, nothing more.
Contrition must prick the emotions or otherwise it's not
contrition. It's not enough to say I
acknowledged that I sinned. We must also feel remorse.
We must also feel guilt. We must also feel regret.
We must also feel shame. We must also feel sorrow.
We must feel these things #3 Question three.
Can we feel too bad for our sin? Can we feel too bad for our sin?
When James gives these commands, is it possible to be too
wretched, to be too mournful, to weep too much?
Yes, yes, we must remember that contrition is a road.
It is not the destination. It's a Rd.
Prolonged contrition, you say? What's wrong with that?
Prolonged contrition robs the cross of its glory, you say,
What's the destination then? Joy in the Lord.
Joy in the Lord is the destination.
That's always the destination. Contrition is the road to get
there. And #4 are we to feel this
question for? Are we to feel this way for
every sin? Are we to Should I feel
miserable for every sin that I commit?
No, no, he say. Well, what?
What do you mean? What?
What?
Listen, we sin every day, if not every hour, if not every minute.
If we felt this way for everything, we would never get
anything done. We cannot feel miserable like in
this sense for everything we do. But the pattern that we see in
Scripture is that when there is egregious sin, when there is
ongoing sin, when there is unrepentant sin, there is
mourning and there is weeping. Ezra and Nehemiah wept at the
thought of Israel marrying foreign women.
They both wept at it. The sinful woman, when she came
to Jesus, she wept at His feet. Peter, after denying Christ,
went out and wept bitterly. So those are four questions.
One last thing I want to mention to you, this is very important
and I, and I say this is very important because I know this
doesn't apply to everybody. Some of us are more emotional
than others. But if I'm painting with a very
broad stroke, if I'm painting with a very broad stroke, we are
not the most emotional church, including myself.
Be careful that your emotions don't develop calluses.
It is a terrifying thing to be able to send frequently and to
not feel bad for it. It is terrifying when you can
send over when a husband can be unkind to his wife over and over
and over again and not feel bad for it.
When a woman can be idolize material things over and over
and over again and not feel bad for it.
When a man can look at pornography over and over and
over again and not feel bad for When a woman or a mother can be
unkind to her children over and over and over again and not feel
bad for it. It is a terrifying thing if we
can sin over and over again and not feel bad for it.
Every time we do that, those calluses, they get thicker.
They do. They get thicker and it becomes
more difficult to feel. Look at verse 9B.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
The next imperative that James gives is found in this verb
turned turned. It's the only time this Greek
word is used in the New Testament.
It's defined as this to cause a change of state with emphasis
upon the difference and the resulting state.
So the people are experiencing laughter and joy.
That's, that's that's a good thing, right?
I mean, when you're around your friends, we all experience
laughter and joy. That's that's why they're our
friends, because they make us happy.
They bring laughter into our life.
And James is commanding them. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning. Let your joy be turned to gloom,
which that word gloom can also be translated as despair,
dejection, or depression. Now what exactly is James saying
here? Why would he command the church
to let their laughter be turned to mourning, to let their joy be
turned to good? Why would he do that?
Let me give an illustration. Suppose my wife found out that I
was having an affair. I claim to her, I claim to all
of you, that I love my wife with all my heart.
But I've been having an affair for the past two years and she
finds out. And suppose the day that she
finds out, she expects that I would be broken.
I would be remorseful, I would be sad.
But instead I just went on as though nothing was wrong.
I was cracking jokes around her. I was excited to go to the NBA
game on Saturday night. I was talking about how the
market is up right now, and later that night I had a big
bowl of ice cream with a smile on my face.
Would there be something wrong with that?
Do we not all instinctively look at that and say something's
wrong? Something's very, very wrong
with that? Shouldn't she expect me to be
mourning? Shouldn't she expect me to be
distraught and dejected? You see, the same is true with
these professing Christians who have prostituted themselves out
with the world. That's what's going on right
now. There are some of the church who
have prostituted themselves out with the world.
They are enjoying themselves, perhaps they are, they are
laughing and and and feel joyful that their new found success.
I would imagine that part of the reason they have made themselves
friends with the world is because it has brought them
prosperity. We all know that if you start a
business in, in 1st century Israel, you're trying to sell
basket weaving and you realize, man, you've got to go rub elbows
with the world to get these baskets out.
I've got to go wine and dine with them.
I've got to learn their language and I've got to be friends with
them. And, and I won't be successful
in my business unless I do that. And they, they feel good about
it. They don't feel broken about it.
They have gained a small piece of the world, but they are not
broken over the possibility of forfeiting their soul.
I see this all the time at the church where people, college
students, young professionals, you may be happy, but is your
happiness a righteous happiness? And and and don't even like
guys. It's not just the party scene
moms. You can become friends with
other lost moms and adopt their ways and not realize you're in
sin. James commands them.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
Now one thing I want to point out is that the three
imperatives and 9A, they're all active, but the imperative and
9B is passive. The three imperatives and 9A are
all active, but the imperative and 9B is passive.
That's why it's translated as let your laughter be turned.
Let your laughter be turned. This reminds us that contrition
is something we are commanded to feel, but contrition is not
something we can manufacture on our own.
I mean, how many times do we mentally know that we should be
broken over something, but emotionally we just don't feel
it. Everybody in this room, that is
true of everybody in this room where we know, it's like, I know
that I should feel bad for doing this or saying this or thinking
this or feeling this or not doing this or not saying this or
not feeling this. We know that we should feel bad
for. But the reality is, if we're
honest with ourselves, we say, I just, I don't feel bad for it.
Brothers and sisters, contrition is a gift.
It is a wonderful gift of grace. Sometimes we have to come before
the Lord and we have to confess to him.
Help me, Lord, I recognize I don't feel what I should.
Help me to mourn over my sin. Help me to mourn over my
brothers and sisters sin. Don't let me grow calloused over
this. Lord, you ever prayed that you
ever started to feel you were growing calloused over something
in your life. Alarm bells should be ringing
and going off saying I man, I feel it.
I know my disciples been challenging me to put the
controller down, but and we want to tune it out and and it's like
in that moment, you got to stop and beg the Lord.
Don't let me grow callous to this verse 10 A humble
yourselves before the Lord. Humble yourselves before the
Lord. The 5th impaired that James
gives us this humble yourselves before the Lord.
There are three points that I want to mention about this
command. Number one, it is a command.
It is a command. Now, I point this out because we
must remember that humility is not a personality trait.
It's not it's not a personality like funny or extroverted,
right? Humility is obedience.
The reason why we must not categorize as personality traits
because I can say all day, all day long, you know what?
You know, guys, I've just never really been a funny person or
I've never been an extroverted person.
And if you're not a funny person, OK, fine, it's not your
personality. If you're not an extraverted
person, fine, it's not your personality.
People are different, but we must not categorize humility as
a personality trait. Humility is obedience #2 The
verb here is a passive verb with a reflexive meaning.
It's a passive verb with a reflexive meaning.
What does that mean? If we translated this verb as
passive, it would read like this.
Be humbled before the Lord. Be humbled before the Lord.
But almost no major translation translates it that way.
Why? Why do they translate it as
active? I think the reason is is because
it appears that James doesn't intend for his readers to just
idly sit by waiting for God to humble them.
James gives a passive verb, but with a reflexive meaning.
This is why the translator is translated as humble yourselves.
Again, this brings out the divine causation and human
responsibility to this command. Divine causation, human
responsibility. I've told the story before, but
I'll tell it again. I can distinctively remember a
conversation with my former worship leader.
This is many years ago. Like like almost maybe 2 decades
ago, I remember I was sitting in my living room at seminary in
New Orleans and we were talking about our spiritual walks and
how we were doing. And I remember telling him how
difficult humility was. I told him I was like, man,
brother, like I've been praying for it and praying for it.
And honestly, it just seems like God doesn't want to give it to
me. And I remember him kind of
looking at me and then quoting this passage saying, you know,
Matt, the Bible charges us to humble ourselves.
The Bible charges us to be responsible to humble ourselves.
Now here's the question, which is it?
Are we to pray for humility or are we to take the
responsibility to humble ourselves?
Both. Both.
Not only does God give grace to the humble, God gives grace to
be humble. We must pray for humility, but
we can't just idly sit by and say he didn't give it.
We have our responsibility to humble ourselves.
Number three, Third Point I want to point out, we are to humble
ourselves before the Lord. Don't miss that phrase.
Don't overlook that phrase. We are to humble ourselves
before the Lord. These phrases are so important
in the New Testament. We are not just to rejoice.
The command of Scripture is not to just rejoice.
We are to rejoice in what? Say it in the Lord, Rejoice in
the Lord. We are not just to humble
ourselves, we are to humble ourselves before the Lord.
Now why is that important? Because this command on paper,
it's rather easy to do. Isn't it the command to humble
ourselves? On paper it's rather easy to do.
You don't need a high IQ to do it.
No one needs a high IQ to humble themselves.
You don't need to be rich to buy it.
Nobody needs to be rich to buy humility.
You don't need specialized training to understand it.
Nobody needs to go to a class called Humility in order to know
how to do this. You don't need years of
experience to carry it out. This command on paper is rather
easy to do. And yet we all know how
difficult it is to humble ourselves in the moment somebody
offends you. Ever had somebody offend you in
that moment? Is it difficult to humble
yourself? Someone is prideful towards us,
you know, it's like if you're humble to me, it's very easy for
me to be humble to you. But when you are prideful to me,
it's very difficult to humble myself.
When someone corrects us in front of others.
You ever had somebody correct you in front of others?
When we fail in front of others? You ever failed in front of
others? Often when I tell people that,
you know, like, would you like to give your testimony or give,
you know, are we not, is it not fear of failure when we're faced
with our own limitations and weaknesses, right?
Do we, do we do we not? Is not going to bed a means of
humbling ourselves? I am not a robot.
If I don't go to bed at this time, I will be tired and I will
not be able to listen very well. When someone unjustly criticizes
us. It is one thing when they
criticize us, and it's fair. But when somebody unjustly
criticizes us, When someone hurts you and they're not sorry
for it, or when someone is praised above you when you know
that you did a better job than them or you can't do a better
job than them and someone else is praised above you.
In these moments, doesn't it feel impossible to humble
ourselves? That just feel impossible to
humble ourselves. How did we do it?
And the answer lies in this last phrase.
Humble yourselves before the Lord.
We are not called to humble ourselves before man.
We are called to humble ourselves before the Lord.
It is only when we have our eyes turned upward and we see God the
Father as holy and righteous. And it is only when we turn our
eyes downward and we see our Savior washing our feet.
It is only then that we are able to humble ourselves.
But if you turn your eyes this way at others, I'll never be
able to humble myself before you.
I'll look at you and I'll see your sin.
I'll see your pride and I'll match it or supersede it.
It's only when my eyes are on the Lord that I'm able to do
this. 10B. Humble yourselves before the
Lord, and He will exalt you. Now, if we are looking for a
prize for humility, our eyes will grow weary because it often
doesn't come. If we think that in humbling
ourselves, people will value that humility, they will prize
it. Actually, in fact, quite the
opposite. In fact, humbling ourselves will
often come with more ridicule. It will come with more
criticism, it'll come with more being taken advantage of.
I think one of the most difficult parts of humbling
ourselves is that often we feel unjustified, right?
If I humble myself right now, I'm just going to feel
unjustified. We'll feel misunderstood, We'll
feel invisible. We'll feel undervalued.
We'll feel underappreciated. We'll feel powerless.
We'll feel exposed, We'll feel embarrassed, We'll feel foolish,
We'll feel lonely. And we think humility won't
solve this problem. There's a problem right now.
And if I humble myself, it's not like humility is going to solve
this problem. You know, after almost every
conflict in my marriage, not every, but almost every conflict
in my marriage through the years, over the past 18 years,
7/17/18 years, I have this lingering thought in my head
afterward. Why didn't I just humble myself
there? Like, why didn't I just humble
myself so often? The reason is that in the
moment, in real time, I fear being misunderstood is that if I
humble myself, I'm going to be misunderstood, or if I humble
myself, a foolish decision is going to get made, or if I
humble myself, I will be unjustified right now.
So we don't want to humble ourselves.
Now here's the question, How do we get over these reservations
to humility? How do we get over these
reservations to humility? By remembering this verse.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and here it is, and He
will exalt you. These are words from our Lord
Jesus Christ. Whoever exalts himself will be
humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
I don't have to seek my exaltation.
I don't have to seek my justification.
I don't have to seek my validation.
I don't have to seek my own understanding.
I don't have to seek these things because I already have
them. Remember in elementary school
when we would? Maybe this, maybe not true for
you, so if the story doesn't apply to you, I apologize.
But for those it does apply to, remember in elementary school
when we would play kickball at PE or gym class?
It was a great honor to be picked first, and it was a great
shame to be picked last. Isn't so much of life this exact
same paradigm? School, work, relationships,
families, We're all trying to figure out where we are in the
pecking order. This even happens in the church.
Do people see me as spiritually mature?
Why do they say this person? I'm pretty sure I'm more
spiritually mature than they are.
And yet in all these situations, we can't humble ourselves.
Why? Because God picked us first.
If you're in Christ, God picked you first.
And that means He will exalt you at the right time.
And if the right time is not in this life, it will come in the
next life. He will exalt you.
He will validate you. He will make it right.
Whatever was wrong in this life, he'll make it right.
People will know. I have to think about this in
the moment. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no. I can't humble myself right now
because they won't know. They won't know they're wrong.
They will. You just need to wait for it.
He will exalt you at the right time.
Look at verse 11. A Do not speak evil against one
other brothers. Do not speak evil against one
another brothers. After calling them adulterous
people, sinners and double minded, James now returns to
calling them brothers. He gives them a command.
The 6th and final impaired this morning is this.
Do not speak evil against one other brothers.
What does this mean? The verb that's used here is
only used five times in the New Testament.
Three of them in this verse is defined as this to speak evil
of, to speak degradingly of, to defame or to slander.
Now, what's interesting is that the two other times that this
word is used, it's in the context of the lost world
slandering Christians. And so it's almost as if James
is saying that when we speak evil of one another against our
brothers, we become like the lost world because that's what
the lost world does. They slander Christians.
Now, what would this include for us?
This would include everything from spreading rumors to
gossiping about one another's sin, to tearing down a brother
or sister behind their back or in front of their face, jumping
to conclusions about their motives, unnecessarily shaming
someone, publicly criticizing someone in front of others self
righteously elevating ourselves and putting others down.
These are things that characterize the world and they
must not characterize Christians.
And yet, sometimes we do see this in the church.
We do see this among Christians. Do you know what's made this
very easy to do in our day and age?
It's made it too easy. Social media.
Social media I have seen Christians who are public
figures, even respectable public figures, tearing down fellow
Christians online, a Christian they may not even met.
There is a difference between speaking the truth and speaking
evil, and even when we speak the truth, we are to speak it with
grace and truth. Look at verse 11.
B. The one who speaks against a
brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and
judges the law. Now what does James mean by the
statement? A few points are in order before
explaining this number one. James here introduces a second
category of judging a brother. He has a second category.
So James is not prohibiting our need to judge actions in the
church. We must judge actions.
James is prohibiting the type of judgement that pronounces
condemnation on one another. That's the first point.
The second point here is that the law here is most likely
referring to the Old Testament law.
All right, so with those two points being said, in what sense
is speaking evil against a brother or judging a brother?
In what sense is that tantamount to speaking evil against the law
and judging the law? What does he mean by that?
Well, if you remember, the law gave us the second greatest
commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself,
which would include our brothers and sisters.
Love your brothers and sisters as yourself.
But to speak evil against our brothers and to judge them is
not to love them as ourselves. And So what James is saying is
that when we do this, when we speak evil against one another
or we pronounce judgment over one another, we have basically
decided which portion of the law we're going to obey and which
portion we're not. We've essentially said to God,
God, I don't think this law applies to me.
I don't think this law needs to be followed, which is to speak
evil about the law and it's to judge the law.
That's the argument that James is making.
The verse 11 C. But if you judge the law, you
are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
James says that if we judge the law, by definition we are not a
doer of the law. We're just a judge of the law.
How so? Let me give an example.
Growing up, I was a rebellious kid.
I wasn't the most the most rebellious kid, but I was, I was
a rebellious kid. Part of the reason that I was
rebellious is because I was a self appointed judge of the
rules. I didn't think this as a kid,
but looking back in my wisdom now in my older years, I look
back and I'm like, that's what I was.
I was a self appointed judge of the rules.
So the teacher, for example, teacher would say no talking in
class. And I would think that's a silly
rule. You can talk if you talk
quietly. The speed limit say 35, That's
ridiculous. You can clearly go 55 and still
be safe. Sometimes we do this with God.
God said to be pure in your thought and your deeds.
That's impossible, God. You can't expect men to do that.
You gave us this desire. You can't really expect us to do
this. Anytime we think this way, we
have become a judge of the law. We have placed ourselves above
God's law and said God, I will determine what makes sense to me
and what doesn't. And by doing so we have
effectively become self appointed judges.
But remember what James said earlier.
We are to be doers of the law, doers of the word, church
family. Be careful that we don't
subconsciously create a bifurcated list of God's law.
These are the commands that make sense to me, and I will obey
them. And these are the ones that I
kind of find rather silly or outdated or not relevant or too
difficult or arbitrary or up for debate.
Be careful you don't create this bifurcated list.
Verse 12. Last verse, there is only one
law giver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy, but
who are you to judge your neighbor?
James reminds the churches. There is only one law giver,
there is only one judge and that is God.
Now some might think, what gives God the right to give the law?
What gives God the right to be the sole judge?
Because he holds the keys to life and death.
He alone has the keys to life and death.
I was reading an article about retail theft in Washington
state. It it said that Washington state
is number one in the country and retail theft.
I believe it. Just go to Walmart in Renton and
you this will be proven true to you.
There is one exception to this, Issaquah.
That's what the article was saying.
Issaquah, Why? They have their own jail system
in Issaquah. And so when people are caught
stealing, they are immediately booked into jail.
The officers were saying that when they arrest people, they
are absolutely stunned that they're going to jail.
They just assumed that like, because everywhere else they
don't, they don't do anything about it.
They're stunned at it, but they happen to steal from a Issaquah
business. They're actually going to go to
jail. Often when they get arrested,
they will say, what gives you the right?
This badge gives me the right. There is only one lawgiver and
judge and his name tag says God. And because he is God, he alone
has the power to save and to destroy.
Sometimes I can be guilty of thinking that I know what people
deserve. I go out in society, I'm like, I
know what this person deserves. This person deserves punishment.
This person deserves hell. Who am I to make such a
judgment? If God wanted to save Adolf
Hitler and condemn Mother Teresa, who am I to say
otherwise? James asked the church.
Who are you to judge your neighbor?
We must not be like the Pharisees who could not accept
the salvation of a blind man, a tax collector, an adulterous
woman and a Samaritan. They just couldn't.
I would imagine that when we get to heaven, we will be very
surprised at who was there and who is not there.
I want to close with a short quote that I read this week in
our small group book. It's just one line, but we're
reading through a book in small group right now and I want to
close with what we read this past week.
Here's what she wrote. She wrote.
Who else knows that the sin that will undo me is my own, not my
neighbors, no matter how big my neighbors send may appear?
Let's pray.