Sermon Transcript
pastors here, work with the young adults, young professionals, and others. And if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to James chapter 3. It’ll also be up on the screen so you can follow there. But as you’re doing that— hope that’s okay if I do that— as you’re doing that, I want to read an email from Doug Valenzuela, one of the missionaries we support in Italy. As Tim mentioned, We have some more information from them.
Pastor Dave, who’s not here with us this morning, sent me an email last night, and I thought I’d read it to you. This is coming from Doug about our team. Well, the team has arrived, but not their luggage.
Actually, most did, but then 2 pieces are still on their way. I loaned Matt my used missionary underwear and socks and cutoffs. How’s that for a twist? Now let them try to see what it’s like to get our used stuff.
If you know Doug, he’s spoken here before. I’d like to, like, note that there are 15 exclamation marks at the end of that sentence. Anyway, he goes on to say, we’re so thrilled to have this team back again, and of course Paul and Catherine are such great leaders. Thanks for all the generous supplies, money, help, prayers, everything. We’ll let you know as time goes on how this week of camp will go.
A standing-room-only camp. What a cool thing. It just seems like the Lord’s doing a lot right now in and through this church. It was fun hearing Rachel and Kaitlin. Looking forward to hearing more, but plenty of things to be praying about, right?
Let’s go ahead and pray and then we’ll get into the Word together. Lord Jesus, we do just thank you for all that it is you’re doing. Lord, we don’t deserve to be used by you for your kingdom, and yet we just are so humbled and thankful that you do give us opportunities, even things that aren’t all that much on our end when it comes down to it. So Lord, we pray that you would stir in our hearts and we would meet these needs. Lord, we do pray for our missionary team there.
Please do let the 2 pieces of luggage arrive there soon. Let that not be too much of a deal for them in the meantime. But more than anything, Lord, what we really desire and pray for is for the kids there who are coming to these camps to hear the gospel and turn and put their faith in you. Lord, we just rejoice. We thank you so much that that’s happened the last 2 summers, and we just wait anticipating in excitement to see what you do again this year.
So please do that, Lord. It has to be you. And then, Lord, as we look at your word today, we pray that we would— that you would speak to us. Lord, to the extent that you speak great, Lord, please get myself out of the way and speak through me. I pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen. All right, well, so we’re continuing this series through the book of James called Faith Does. And it’s kind of funny, if you happen to remember what I preached a month ago, I spoke— the topic was God’s Words. And we’re working through this series just kind of randomly, chronologically as pastors. And today I happen to be assigned Our Words.
So I’m wondering, okay God, what are you trying to say to me? Like, do you have some spiritual soap you just want to take to my tongue? I don’t know. But I’m really looking forward to looking at the Scripture with you. So James 3, first 12 verses.
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example.
Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue is also a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
All kinds of animals— birds, reptiles, and sea creatures— are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be!
Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. Words matter. We know this.
They have great potential to cause a lot of harm. You know, it could be things said in a mean spirit, or we could say things with the best of intentions, but still there would be plenty of harm. I’m sure there’s many things you regret saying over the course of your life. Recently I came across a woman who posted something online describing 2 instances in her life that someone said something to her that drastically impacted her life trajectory. The first one, she had a close friend come to her and in a major way betray her.
And after a while, she finally asked this friend why they had done this, and their friend said this, because you’re hard to love. Can you imagine hearing that, right, from a close friend? And so she was reflecting on this, and she was saying, you know, I have to admit This has stayed with me much longer than it probably should have. For years I’ve held on to these words and they have— and it’s affected my life in ways that it probably shouldn’t have. You know, I wonder how many of us sitting here today carry words that have been spoken to us that have had a similar impact on our lives, left an emotional wound or scar, and we’ve kept those wounds for years and years, even going back to our childhood.
Words that we can easily remember.
On the other hand, I wonder how many of us can think of words that we’ve said to others that have perhaps had similar impacts on people’s lives. Words matter. They can cause real harm, but they can also be a force of real good. The other instance this woman describes is a friend of hers who always described to her Christians as just the most phony of people. Fakes.
But at one point she said, you know what, but I see something different in you that I see to be a God thing. And as a Christian, she reflected, she said this, she said— she was ecstatic— she said, now that was so sweet to hear these words. Someone got a glimpse of Jesus in me? In me? You know, clearly these simple words, not many when you count the sum total of them, have had a huge impact on her life.
I wonder how many of us have things, have words spoken to us over the course of our lives that have influenced it in a positive way. Things people have said, maybe words of affirmation or praise or encouragement that have influenced the career that you’re in or spoken some health into a rough patch of your life that you just will never forget. It’s meant so much to you and it’s impacted who you are.
So words matter. They’re life-changers. Words build. Words destroy. But here’s the thing, we know this.
Don’t we? So then why is it we so often don’t live mindful of this reality? In other words, why do we so often fail to take into account the weight of our words before forming them on our lips? I think that’s what James is getting at here in the scripture. He’s saying you need to understand why your words matter so that you’ll take action and do so now.
What he’s saying is we need to watch what we say so that we don’t cause more serious harm to others or ourselves even. We need to watch what we say so that we’ll use the words— we’ll use words the way they’re ultimately intended to be used. So that’s what we’re going to be looking at here in the Scripture, why words matter, and we’re going to be seeing it under 3 headings. But first, we need to get into the text, and what we see here in verse 1 is James takes a bit of an interesting approach. In making his case, he starts with a case study.
Look at this. He says in verse 1, not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. Then he moves on. Now, it seems pretty clear to me that his purpose is not to make people like me or people like me want to quit. I have to admit, when I read this first time, I sat down to study, I was like, ooh, okay.
Right? That’s not what he’s trying to get at. If that was what he was trying to get at, just talking to teachers, he would have spent more time talking to them, about teachers. He moves on quickly. What he’s doing is he’s making a case study to express a principle, and that principle is what we’ve said: words count.
Words matter.
With more words comes more responsibility. God sits over judgment over our words, and the more words we speak, the more evaluation that’s done, the closer God’s going to look into what we say. Now we can go off and we can talk about the particular dangers that professional speakers and teachers, especially Christian teachers and speakers, face when it comes to what James is talking about. But again, I don’t— that’s not what James is getting across here. What he’s getting across is what Jesus got across in Matthew 12:36.
He said, I tell you, Jesus said, on Judgment Day you will have to give an account for every idle word. James is setting up the rest of the passage saying all Christians are, in a sense, teachers. We’re all on display for others to see the things of God. And so therefore, we need to take very seriously what it is we say because it matters. Our words matter.
So let’s go ahead and look into this. So the first heading we’ll see here is the destructive power of words. So this is all over the scripture, as I’m sure you’ve already heard as we read it, but I want to focus in on verse 6. The tongue is a fire, a word of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
Now, if you’ve lived in California for any length of time, you know the destructive power of wildfires. Cindy and I have had family living in San Diego or that area for many years, and there’s been some really close and scary calls. I mean, we’re talking full evacuations of the area, prayer vigils for all that’s going down, that sort of intensity. Well, perhaps the scariest of all these fires was back in 2003. Some of you might remember the Cedar Fire.
Unofficially, it was known as the 2003 Firestorm. But listen to this. It blazed for over a week, burned 800,000 acres, cost a total of $27 million, and worst of all, recorded 104 injuries and 15 deaths, including one firefighter. Do you know how it started? A single hunter out in the woods started one small fire, and before he could help it, it got out of control.
James is saying it’s this way with our tongues. It’s this way with our words. Our words can so easily get out of control and cause just destructive harm. And all it takes is a small spark, a word or two, maybe a sentence, and things get out of control. The destructive power of words is this.
Here’s a way of putting it: talk ain’t cheap. Okay, have you heard that phrase, talk is cheap? Whoever came up with that phrase is selling something. I don’t know what the deal is there. But the thing about the tongue is it’s aggressive.
It’s invasive. I mean, you think about over and above all the other body parts that we have. Let’s take, for instance, the eyes. Jesus talks about our eyes on plenty of occasions. And the eyes can do real harm, right?
They can show what people are thinking and feeling in some really harmful ways. I mean, an example that comes to my mind is think about when someone stares at a significant other. Your significant other and how that makes you feel. But that’s more passive than the tongue, isn’t it? Or think about our hands.
We can cause a lot of damage with our hands, right? I mean, we can kill. But how often is that happening in our day-to-day lives, right? It’s the tongue, on the other hand, whether spoken from the mouths, whether penned to paper, whether posted on a website, that can just cause Trouble in unmatched ways. If any of you guys watch Jimmy Kimmel Live, it’s kind of a Dave Letterman version of a late show.
He does this segment, which is probably not the best, called Celebrities Read Mean Tweets About Themselves. You know Twitter, you put on some posts and it goes out and everybody can read all that. So what he does to get a laugh is he has these celebrities come on, you know, sit in front of a camera, they’re handed a phone, and they read these nasty things about themselves. Most of the time celebrities really laugh it off, but I’m convinced that actually not all the celebrities have read the tweets that they read before the camera’s rolling. The reason I say that is every once in a while there’ll be a celebrity who reads one of these tweets and instead of laughing it off, which you would expect them to do, you could see genuine disgust and even deep hurt on a personal level.
I remember one individual whom I won’t name, who it looked like they were getting ready to cry on air. I just thought, okay, I probably should— I got to stop watching this. Right? That’s the amazing thing about words. It takes 30 seconds to type 15 words, hit the enter button, tweet it out, goes out to the world, and it can go immediately onto a celebrity’s computer screen in their house or into their pockets on their phones.
Unless you’re Justin Bieber, who has like 27 million followers, chances are they’re probably going to read some of these. I mean, you think about the destructive harm that our words can have on other people’s lives. Think about all the posts, if you guys are on Facebook, that you could put on there that we just— we don’t consider what other people are thinking or feeling when we put it out there, even in our own social circles, how it can influence them. You know, the thing about fire is it spreads indiscriminately, doesn’t it? It doesn’t care.
It just spreads. Wherever there’s a place where it can get fuel, it’ll go to there. And I’m becoming more and more convinced that the people most hurt when we use words in an unhealthy, destructive way are not so much the people who are the target of our resentment, of our bitterness, or whatever, jealousy, whatever it might be, although there’s obviously harm done there. The most harm can often come to our confidants. We’re talking about that person.
Oh, I can’t stand this person at work. We come home, we’re talking to our friend, roommate, spouse. I can’t stand this person at work because they just can’t get their tasks done on time. They’re just stupid, right? Or, you should see how so-and-so uses their money, or how so-and-so raises their kid.
You wouldn’t believe it. I’m becoming more and more convinced it’s not those people that we’re talking about where most of the harm is done. Most of the harm is happening with the people that we’re sharing these words with. And that’s what fire does. It just starts spreading out.
Do you see that? What are we communicating to these people Our friends, our coworkers, our spouses, when we say these sorts of things. We’re communicating, you know what, it’s okay to judge. It’s okay to demean people. It’s okay to gossip.
Help rumors just keep going along. That’s what we’re communicating, aren’t we? Parents and grandparents, think about the impact this can have on your kids and your grandkids. You know, when we’re talking to someone and they’re sitting in the backseat on the way home from somewhere, or at the dinner table? I mean, you think about the lifelong impact that can have on our kids.
Our words, our tongues are fire, James says. We can’t do this. It’s destructive. Our words hurt people in ways we can’t even fathom. But more than that, James says our words hurt our own selves.
Look again at verse 6, the tongue corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire. You know what movie really illustrates this point well? Have you guys seen Mean Girls? It came out about 10 years ago. It’s, you know, it’s a movie.
If you’ve seen it, it’s about this girl who’s raised— her name’s Cady— she was raised in the African jungle by some zoologist parents. And she’s homeschooled, she’s a real sweet, kind-hearted girl. But they come back and she enters public school here in the US, and she finds that she has to really survive in a whole different kind of jungle, okay? It’s the classic high school lunchroom drama. You have all the cliques, the jocks, the band members, you know, the geeks, and of course right at the top you have what the movie calls the plastics.
You know, really they’re the mean girls, right? They go around, they’re petty, They gossip, they lie, they don’t care about anyone’s feelings but themselves. They wear pink on Wednesdays. And they— and there’s just— it’s just horrible. And because they’re so popular, everybody else in the school is impacted by that.
And so Cady, she makes other friends early on, and they’re the out crowd, right? But they’re the normal people, right? That’s really what the movie’s stating. These are the normal, down-to-earth people. And so they devise a plan just out of fun for Cady to infiltrate the mean girls’ clique and have a little bit of fun, okay?
And so, she succeeds, but over the course of the movie, something unexpected happens. You know, at first, she’s like the spy reporting back to her friends, here’s what’s happening, right? She walks the walk, talks the talk, she’s belittling, she’s petty, she says mean things to others to gain trust with that clique, to build that rapport with them. But over the course of the movie, what changes is, those words that originally she was saying to try to build trust actually become her own. They influence who she is.
And actually, even towards the end of the movie, she ends up bitterly betraying some of those close friends that she started with.
James is saying our words influence who we are. So we really need to watch what we say. They can destroy our own character. Our words are set on fire by hell, he says in verse 6. They hurt others, they hurt ourselves in just far greater ways than we tend to realize.
Therefore, we need to watch what we say. They’re destructive. But the question is this: where does it come from? This destructive power on our lips, what’s its cause?
Is it from a bad day? Bad day at work? Bad company? A bad upbringing? Bad night’s sleep?
James says, no, no, no, that’s too simple. That’s too superficial. Now we look at the revealing nature of words, starting in verse 9. He says, with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.
My brothers and sisters, this should not be! Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. Now, it’s not a particularly sophisticated point that James is making here.
Excuse me. He’s saying, by its water we know the spring. By its fruit we know the tree. By its speech we know the heart. Fresh water, fresh spring.
Salty water, salty spring. Figs, fig tree. Poisonous lips, poisonous in his heart.
Jesus said it this way in Matthew 12:34, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
The revealing nature of our words is this: the tongue exposes the heart. Have you ever thought of it that way? The tongue exposes the heart. I wonder what it would be like for us if every word that we spoke, that we speak, if it were recorded. And made available to everybody to listen to?
How would we feel, right? I’m more and more convinced that the words that we say behind closed doors are more revealing of our character and our nature, our hearts, than the words that we say in front of people, whether good or bad. Wouldn’t you say? We’ve all known people— have you ever had the conversation with somebody and they talk— it’s the way they talk about a certain individual that just kind of rubs you the wrong way, and then you get home and something hits you and you think, oh my goodness, they must talk about me that way. Have you ever had that thought?
What happens when those things happen? Their words are ruining credibility, respect that you have for them. Or think about, you know, the reverse is true too, isn’t it? You probably know someone in your life, the way they talk about things, the way that they talk about people in such a way of respect leads you in turn to have a special respect for them. You know, it’s as if what they say makes you more willing to be vulnerable with them or open up to them because you’re not going to be preoccupied, oh no, they’re going to reflect me in a poor light to somebody else.
It comes in different ways. The tongue exposes the heart. In this passage, James points out at least 2 characteristics that we each reveal in our blackened hearts. And I want to do this just briefly. The first is in verses 9 and 10.
I’m going to read this again. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Do you see what James is saying we have a problem with and it comes out through our lips?
He’s saying we have a problem with hypocrisy, inconsistency. He’s saying it’s like going to church and worshipping God, having a spiritual high, but then you get home not long later and you’re speaking ill about somebody. You’re speaking down towards somebody. James is saying that’s hypocrisy. Men and women are created in the likeness of God.
When you demean somebody, you demean their Creator. When you belittle them, you’re belittling their Creator. And James is saying that’s hypocrisy. The other characteristic we all speak that reveals our blackened hearts is found in verse 5. The tongue, he says, is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.
James here is saying that our tongues reveal self-righteousness in our hearts, pride.
When we’re boasting, what is it we’re doing? You know, I think very often when we’re boasting, what we’re doing is we’re comparing ourselves to others. Listen to what Larry Osborne says in his book, Accidental Pharisees. Larry Osborne is a pastor in Southern California. He says, our spiritual comparisons are incredibly biased.
We have an amazing ability to compare things in a way that causes us to come out on top. And when we come out on top, it’s hard not to look down on people who don’t measure up. It’s at this point that pride becomes particularly dangerous. Isn’t that true? I mean, think about But it’s like being in a group of friends, and let’s just use the church context as an example.
Let’s say you’re in a Bible study, and folks in that Bible study, out of nowhere, the conversation turns towards, you know, talking about people who are maybe perhaps less passionate in their faith, right? And then before you know it, the group’s ripping on how people raise their kids, spend their money, read their Bibles, set their priorities. These conversations really are, I’m glad I’m not them. Type conversations, right?
Look, here’s the thing about boasting, about self-righteousness, about pride. Let’s say that perhaps, just perhaps, in these instances our words are accurate.
The problem with speaking comparisons of this nature is not so much that we notice the differences, it’s what we do with that information. Because it’s so easily— it’s so easy to use this information to justify looking down on others. And the Bible is clear, that’s arrogance. Larry Osborne goes on to say this, he says, spiritual arrogance is not a back-of-the-line sin, it’s a front-of-the-line sin. What’s he saying?
He’s coming in agreement with what James is saying. James is saying we are all teachers on display showing others the things of God.
And so when we project a better-than-thou attitude, It’s an indication of a blackened heart, and here’s what’s happening. We’re destroying lives, and we’re pushing people away from the faith.
You know, I think it’s important to note that James is a realist here. I mean, I think we need to be absolutely clear who he’s talking to. Strong Christians. Do you see that? In verse 9, he’s talking to people who worship the Lord, okay?
He’s talking— if you’ve been coming to this church for any number of years, he’s talking to you and me.
And it’s we whose tongues are, he says, verse 6, set on fire by hell. There’s no rosying up that thought. I mean, that’s a pretty gloves-coming-off type, you know, statement. But look, this shouldn’t surprise us. It doesn’t surprise James.
He’s saying that’s how we are. So then, what is the answer? You know, put another way, if we’re reading this text, is what James ultimately saying here, avoid saying bad things? Is that his point? We just need to clean up what we say?
Just avoid saying bad things, with the implication, and then things will go better for you. I think we need to be really careful, because if we do that, I think we’re just— we’re seeing on the surface what he’s saying and failing to see what it is he’s getting at on a deeper, much more important level. And I would submit to you that if we stay there and say it’s just about correcting our behavior, we flirt with the possibility of being in worse position than if we hadn’t picked up our Bibles this morning. Because correcting behavior, behavior modification, is a recipe itself for self-righteousness, itself for hypocrisy. And that’s not what James is actually saying.
Let’s look and see what he’s saying. And we come to our— the final and probably most important heading, the healing potential of our words. First off, let’s go back to verses 9 and 10. Did you notice that there’s 2 types of speech? With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who have been made in God’s likeness.
Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. So what he’s saying is, yes, we do curse others, but it remains, we do praise the Lord with our lips and truly with our hearts. So it’s not all It’s not all black is black, is it? James knows that, but more than that, he can explain it.
And you see, there’s another source for our speech, and it’s not just our hearts. Actually, the source is not ourselves entirely, and that’s the point. Look at verses 2 and 7, verses that we’ve skipped over. He said, verse 2, we all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.
And then verse 7, all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. What’s he saying? He’s saying you can try to avoid ungodly speech, saying ungodly speech all you want, but at the end of the day, you cannot do it. It’s impossible for you. We cannot tame the tongue.
And since, if you look at verse 2, he’s making the point that our tongues really reflect whether or not we’re anywhere near perfection, then we’re just falling far short. And what James is doing is he’s pointing us to the one person who was able to tame his tongue. The one person who spoke perfectly in everything he did and was himself perfect. James is saying we all stumble in many ways. We can’t do it.
We need outside help, and he is our outside help. So today we’ve been talking about words, the importance of words. Do you know one of the fun names that the Bible has for Jesus Christ? He’s called the Word. In John 1, listen to how John, the Apostle John, starts his apostle account describing Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, he was with God in the beginning. Then in verse 14, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Do you realize what an astounding claim that is? I mean, what do words do for us?
Why— that Jesus would be called the Word, what is What is that significance? We know what words do. We’ve talked about this a little bit. Words reveal the person. I mean, I could be sitting in a coffee shop and, you know, over a number of days, you see somebody, this guy come in and he orders coffee every time.
Nonfat frappuccino. I don’t know that stuff. Anyways, he comes and he orders that. And after a few days, he does something different. He orders some tea.
Okay? How am I ever going to know about this, anything about this guy or, you know, including his preferences? Well, I’m not going to know until I ask and he tells me. Hey, I like tea and coffee. Oh, you know what?
Actually, I can’t stand the stuff. Tea, I can’t handle it, but my doctor says I need to start drinking because I have the— You know what I’m saying? The only way we start to get knowing someone on a deeper level is when they tell us. They use their words. And that’s why it’s so amazing when the Bible describes Jesus as the Word.
It’s saying you can get to know Jesus fully. You can get to know God the Father fully when you see the words and life of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel accounts we have recorded for us. How can we know God fully? Well, Jesus said, if you know me, you know the Father.
And what a glorious God he is. I mean, let me read this verse again. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. His words were full of grace.
You know what that reminds me of? One of my favorite stories in the Bible is when those religious leaders dragged the prostitute caught in the act of adultery in front of Jesus. And they figured, okay, we got Jesus trapped now. He’s got this reputation of being nice, but we also know that he upholds the law. And Moses, the law of Moses says she must be stoned.
So let’s see you get out of this one, Jesus, right? And how did the Word respond to that, full of grace and truth? Well, at first, what did he say to the men there, the religious leaders? He said, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Whew!
Straight to the heart. I love how the text says, starting with the oldest, they all departed one by one. Why is that? Well, they all knew in their hearts that they were also guilty and deserving of an equal punishment. It might not be the same type of stoning on this occasion, but they all knew based on the standard that God has for them, they fall completely short.
And so they all left. And then who’s before Jesus? This woman, still probably on the ground lying there. You’ve got to wonder what’s going through her mind. What’s he going to say to me?
You know, she takes a gulp. It’s like, what’s going to happen? What does Jesus say? Full of the Word, full of grace and truth. He says, neither do I condemn you.
Go and sin no more. Grace and truth. Truth, go and sin no more. Sin, you need to take seriously. We’ve got to turn our ways, try our best to turn around.
What’s that based on, however, is grace. Neither do I condemn you. Jesus Christ, the Word became flesh, had every right to condemn her, condemn you and me, condemn those religious leaders, and yet he offers the ability to not be condemned because he can do that. How does he do that? Well, the Word made flesh was able to offer grace and truth to that woman, to those religious leaders, mind you, who— let’s put ourselves in the story.
According to James, would be us. The hypocrisy that they had, the self-righteousness that they had. The only way the Word could come and save us from it was to die on the cross, to pay the punishment. The truth the justice of the penalty that we deserve, but with the love of, I’m going to pour this out on my Son and not you.
Grace and truth, and that’s what he offers us, and that’s what he’s made known to us.
What amazing words that we learn about God. It’s just so amazing to me because, you know, at the end of the day, here’s what James is doing. In verse 2, for example, when he says, all of us have sinned, what’s he doing? He’s saying that’s gospel humility. That’s saying we need the gospel of Jesus Christ, died on the cross for us.
James was a very, very top— I mean, he was probably the top leader of the church in Jerusalem at the time. And here he’s saying we all stumble. You know, I’m part of it. I stumble. And what he’s doing, he’s modeling for us.
Essentially, this is what I’m saying here with the healing potential of our words. Our words must point to the word. To the extent we’re doing that, you think about the potential. We’ve been talking about words impact our lives. They matter.
There’s things that you and I remember from our childhood that we can’t shake. We think about them and they influence our course of life.
More than that, Jesus says the words, when you’re pointing to me, you’re influencing people’s eternity. That’s just wonderful potential. And what a loving message because in the heart of this James is saying it’s not of us, it’s of Jesus Christ fully. And so our words must point to the Word. What does this look like in our lives?
You know, it’s interesting, I had another example ready today but then I got a call yesterday. It’s funny how God gives you things in his timing. You know, my dad called me up and he was telling me about a family friend who had— who wanted to talk to him about something. She’s a loving, person, loves her kids just to death, but she’s been having real trouble with one of her children. Actually, this relationship tension has stretched for 20 years.
As I said, she loves him to death, but what happens is, she was telling my dad, she can’t help it, but out come harsh words to him. She absolutely doesn’t want to do it, but it just happens. As a result, their relationship from time to time takes steps backwards and she can’t stand it. She loves him but it just happens. Harsh words come out.
At this point, 20 years later of doing this and seeing her pattern in this, she’s throwing up her hands and saying, I can’t do it. I think that’s kind of what James is saying. We cannot do it in our own power. We need the gospel. We need the cross.
We need the Word. First of all, she needed the Word to know that she is loved and accepted even though there’s this hardship with her child that’s just tearing her apart inside. There might be things, you know, as we’re talking about today that you’re— it’s bringing up in mind for you of hard things that you’ve said to others and you know it. You know what? The first thing you need to hear is that Jesus loves you and forgives you.
If you’re a follower of his, he makes himself— he has paid that penalty for you on the cross. If you’re not a follower of his, he offers that to you. That’s why I’m standing here as a Christian today. That’s my story.
So first she needed to hear that, but I think also, you know, I think that approach with her child, I don’t know how it would look, but, you know, son, you know, you need to know that I love you, but I’m sinful, and I just get things wrong, and I say things from time to time that just, they’re actually not what I mean. I just need you to know that I love you. I’m not saying that’s a— there’s no silver bullet here, right? But a gospel humility of pointing people— our words pointing to the Word— there is the healing potential. It’s my prayer as a church that we would just embrace this wonderful news more and more in our words, in our actions.
We don’t have our act together here. If you’re a visitor here, let me tell you this. We’re not a perfect church by any means. There’s no such thing as a perfect church. But we’re loved by the perfect Son and the perfect Lord who has come to die for us and forgiven us, and he’s making all things new, including our tongues.
And so that’s my prayer, that we would just— this gospel healing, we, you know, we wouldn’t shy away from embracing the fact that we’re self-righteous. You know, we’re hypocritical at times. There’s— our lips have poison, our hearts have poisons. We need to embrace the gospel because when we do this, as James models for us, we’re pointing people to the Word who everybody so desperately needs. And by God’s grace, may it be true of us from time to time.
May people say of us what they said of our Lord in John 7:46, and I end with this. They said of Jesus, no one ever spoke the way this man does. Let’s pray.
First of all, with your eyes closed and heads bowed, I just want to give you an opportunity, if you’re here today and you’re considering the things of Jesus, or maybe you’ve been doing that for a while, the gospel news, which literally means the good news, of Christianity can be boiled up to this: Jesus Christ come, died for our sins that we might have life in his name. And when we trust him and we believe in him, he gives us eternal life, not based on anything we can do, our speech, our actions, but based entirely on what he’s done for us. And if, and if you would like to receive that forgiveness and receive the Bible promises eternal life in his name, I want to give you the opportunity with eyes closed and heads heads bowed, to raise your hand and show your indication that you’d like to do that. I’ll pray for you. Yes, I see that hand.
Others? Yes, I see the hand back there. Yes. Yes, I see the hand close here by the drums. Yes.
Others? If you’d like to receive forgiveness in Jesus’ name, not based on anything you can do, just raise your hand. I’ll see it. I’m not gonna make you do anything awkward. I just want to pray for you.
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, I just want to pray for these 3 individuals who’ve raised their hand indicating that they need your forgiveness, they need life in your name that only you can provide. Lord, I pray that you’d come into their hearts and give them healing and eternal life. Lord, I really pray much of this for everybody in this room who does call you Lord and Savior. That we would just embrace the gospel, that we have someone— really, the potential of our words meets its maximum efficiency, if that’s a way to put it, when we’re pointing people to you, when we’re accepting our brokenness and we’re saying, we just need you.
Lord, may we be that as a church. May we embody that as individuals in this community, and we just desire more and more people to find life in your name, including ourselves, as we— as you’re making us more like you. We pray all this in Jesus’ name, amen. Well, at this time we’re going to close in worship, and so if the worship team can come forward and lead us in worship.
