The Book Of James - Part Three
Gtcotr/ws020905
Tonight we pick up with a subject of which the Apostle and Presiding Pastor of the First Christian Church in Jerusalem spoke strongly about.
This subject simply put is:
The Difference Between Our Words and God’s Words
James 1 NLT
19 ¶ My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
20 Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight.
21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls.
22 And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself.
23 For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance.
24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
25 But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law—the law that sets you free—and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.
27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
I. Be --- Become
A. Quick to listen
1. Seek to understand before seeking to be understood
2. Unless we know everything, we are a candidate to learn something
3. When I was a child my father used to say to me, “If you would take some of that cotton out of your ears and put it into your mouth you would learn more.”
B. Slow to speak
1. Proverbs 17:28 Even fools are thought to be wise when they keep silent; when they keep their mouths shut, they seem intelligent.
2. You have perhaps heard it said that “It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and be proved one.”
C. Slow to get angry
1. V.2 Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight.
2. Decisions made in anger are seldom profitable to anyone.
II. Humbly Accept The Message (verse 21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls.)
A. What Message?
1. That God is good
2. V.18 In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his choice possession.
> God is not tempting us or enticing us with evil
> Wait patiently on God and don’t entertain second thoughts about God, His goodness nor His word
B. God’s Word is strong enough to save your soul
1. Save in verse 21
> Greek: sozo
> Definition: to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction, from injury or peril, to save a suffering one (from perishing), i.e. one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health
2. Greek Verb Form
* Tense-Aorist Voice-Active Mood - Infinitive
> Existent at this point without regard to inceptive or cumulative points.
> The subject is the doer or performer of the action
> Basically same as infinitive in English, the verb with ’to’ prefixed. (used as well to reflect purpose or result.)
C. v. 22 And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself.
III. Our Words Can Harm Us
v.26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.
A. Proverbs 18:21 ¶ Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
B. Proverbs 6:2 You are snared by the words of your mouth; You are taken by the words of your mouth.
C. Numbers 14:28 "Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you
IV. Keep Yourself Unspotted From The World (KJV)
* v.27 … refuse to let the world corrupt us. NLT
> the old familiar Romans 12 message: don’t be conformed …
Next week: “Being religious can harm you.”
(Having a form of Godliness but living in denial of the scriptures)
Faith without works
Religion with respect of persons
