James: Practical Faith
James 4:11-17
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
11-24–2024
Richard Jewell
On July 27, 1996, Richard Jewell was working as a security guard at the Olympics in Atlanta. It was just after midnight when he spotted the suspicious backpack and began moving people away from the area. The backpack was a pipe bomb and exploded, killing one person and injuring over 100 more. The death toll would have been much higher if not for Richard Jewell’s quick thinking. He was a hero.
But the FBI didn’t believe his story. He acted strangely and they came up with a theory that he planted the bomb so he could discover it and be a hero. What we now know is that Richard was on the autism spectrum and responded differently than others.
A law enforcement officer met with a reporter for the Atlanta Constitution newspaper and shared this theory. That is called slander. She published the article, called libel, and Richard Jewell went from being a hero to a suspect.
His house was searched, he was put under 24 hours surveillance, and his apartment was surrounded by news vans and reporters.
All of this happened without a shred of evidence. He even passed a lie detecter test.
At a press conference in July of 1997, Attorney General Janet Reno stated, "I'm very sorry it happened. I think we owe him an apology. I regret the leak.”
No apology was ever offered to Richard. Not even after Eric Rudolph was named a suspect. Rudolph was arrested and confess to the Atlanta bombing.
Richard Jewell died at 48 years old.
Rumors are like a bell. Once you ring a bell, you can’t unring it.
Review
Like a machine gun, James is going to rattle off a series of commands.
When we have messed up, when we are in conflict, when our pride has got the better of us, there is a way back.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
* Submit
When faced with conflicts, internal and external, the most important thing we can do is to bow the knee in submission to God.
Those who submit are called to follow the humble, self-emptying example of Jesus and choose to follow in His footsteps.
The tense of the verb means to make a choice and do it at once. We are called to be subject to God and obey Him in everything.
It is the only way to salvation and the only avenue toward growing in Christ.
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
“If you will not submit, your faith is a lie, your hope is a delusion, your prayer is an insult, your peace is presumption, your end will be despair.” - Spurgeon
D.L. Moody said,
“Let God have your life, He can do far more with it than you can.”
Resist
Before we can stand before satan’s onslaughts, we must bow low before God.
We are not called to attack the devil but to resist. This is a picture of a dam that is holding back a torrent of water not by moving but by being immovable.
It’s been said that the devil can wrestle against a Christian but he cannot pin him.
So we submit ourselves to God, we resist the devil and then we are given an invitation and a promise.
Come near
This is a verse that you need to underline, circle, put on an index card and memorize.
When ungodly behavior or worldliness or conflict puts distance between you and God, there is a way back.
He doesn’t just want to save you or forgive you, He wants to be near you.
If you feel distance between you and God, remember, God hasn’t moved, you have. Come home.
Once we have drawn near to God and are in the presence of His holiness, we will realize just how sinful we really are.
Wash/Purify
James calls sinners to wash their hands of their sinful actions.
He then calls us to purify our hearts of our sinful attitudes.
This is a call to repentance.
Repentance is a change of heart that leads to a change of direction.
In the very first Gospel sermon, Peter proclaimed,
"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)
If you are a thousand miles away from God, how many steps back is it? Just one!
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
Change your laughter to mourning
The result of sin is separation from God and God will do what it takes to bring us back to Him. Remember, He will not allow his children to sin successfully.
Guilt, or as the Bible calls it, godly sorrow, is a good thing for a Christ-follower.
Paul explained this to the Corinthian Christians:
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Cor 7:10)
We do not mourn and weep because we have broken God’s rules but because we have broken His heart.
Humble yourself
The word humble means “a sense of modesty, without arrogance, the opposite of pride.” It produces a correct view of ourselves, our relation to Christ, and others.
John Stott wrote:
“Pride is your greatest enemy, humility is your greatest friend.”
We are to take our cue from John the Baptist. He was asked whether it bothered him that people were flocking to Jesus and he responded, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
James is now going to finish the chapter with two commands - stop playing God with other people and stop playing God with your own life.
Please turn to James 4.
Prayer
Don’t Play God with Others
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Notice that he addresses brothers and sisters. He is addressing believers. Obviously, this was happening in their churches and James isn’t going to stand for it.
He begins with another command - do not slander one another.
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another.
The word translated “slander” is a combination of two Greek words that means to “talk down to.”
This is translated as criticize, malign, or disparage. It is any speech that runs down another person.
There are many ways we can do this.
We can literally talk down to others.
Jesus told this parable:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector…” (Luke 18:10)
This happens in church more than you know. Somehow we forget that the ground is even at the foot of the cross and think, like the Pharisee in the parable, that we are better than others.
As my friend Brian Bill says, “We don’t like people who sin differently than we do.”
We can make false charges against another.
This is something I experienced when I left my previous church. I received a letter in the mail from a woman that I had ministered to and with for years accusing me of absolutely terrible things, none of which were true.
Even worse, I learned that she had been sharing these things with others. This was no less than trying to assassinate my reputation and character. Maxine has only seen me mad a few times in 32 years but that was one of them.
John Calvin said, “No greater injury can be inflicted upon a man than to ruin their reputation.”
Solomon wrote this caution to his sons:
“The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.” (Prov 18:8)
Pastor Scott Sauls writes:
"Gossip in pornography of the mouth. A cheap thrill that offers zero commitment to the person being objectified.”
We can share something that is true but doesn’t need sharing.
“Well, I’m not supposed to share this but I’ll share it as a prayer request.”
The word slander means to spy things out or spread things around. It can be translated as backbiting. The devil is called a “slanderer.” Don’t join his team!
Pastor James Montgomery Boice wrote this concerning slander and gossip:
“I think more damage has been done to the church by gossip, criticism, and slander than by any other sin. So I say don’t do it. Bite your tongue before you criticize another Christian.”
Solomon writes that God hates when we do this:
“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” (Prov 6:16-19)
Ultimately, this is an act of pride. We speak down to them to exalt ourselves.
Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
So by speaking against another believer James makes the case that we appoint ourselves to a position over others.
We pronounce condemnation against our fellow brothers and sisters.
James wrote in chapter three:
“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.” (James 3:9-10)
We need to pause for a minute and ask a question. Is James saying that we can never judge anyone or anything?
We’ve all heard people say “only God can judge me.” I always respond, “You are right and He will.”
Didn’t Jesus say,
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:1-5)
These verses don’t prohibit us from judging others. We are called to beware of false prophets. How would we do that except to judge their message?
But there is a difference between judging and being judgmental. What is forbidden is flagrant sinners/hypocrites from exercising judgement when dealing with other’s sins.
Paul makes the case in Galatians 6, when we are confronting other’s sin, we need to be gentle. Our goal should be to build others up, according to their needs (Eph 4:31), and not tear them down.
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” (Romans 2:1-3)
Only God knows another person’s heart and motives. Only God knows the whole story.
Charles Spurgeon and his wife used to sell eggs. They made it clear that the eggs were for sale and they would not give any away for free.
People began to mumble that with all the money that Spurgeon made from his sermons and books, he could afford to give away the eggs. They accused him of greed. They simply stayed quiet and sold the eggs.
What no one knew was that 100% of the profit from the eggs went to support two elderly widows they had met.
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
I used to speak at a camp in Indiana and there was another speaker that got booked more than I did. He was a great camp speaker and the kids loved him. Honestly, I was jealous of him.
I heard through the grapevine that he had gotten divorced. I was talking to a student who was going on and on about how great he was and I blurted out, “Well, you probably need to know that he got divorced.”
The student looked at me with sad eyes and said, “Yes, I do know that. His wife left him and the kids for another man. She simply walked out on her entire family. It devastated them. Have you checked on him lately?”
My knees nearly buckled under the shame I felt at that moment. When we were first married, Maxine would say that God was going to leave a tack on the judgment seat for the next time I decide to crawl up and have a seat. I thought I was better but my heart was still judgmental.
James calls us to be doers of the Law but, when we are judgmental, we put ourselves above the Law and above God.
Imagine you get pulled over for going 75 in a 40 mph zone. When the police officer says, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” You say, “Probably because of the stupid speed limit. It’s dumb. I don’t feel that it applies to me. Thank you officer for this little chat. I’ll be on my way now.”
God alone has the right to judge. He is the Law giver, the author of justice and righteousness, the One who holds life in his hands:
“See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.” (Deut 32:39)
What Law is James writing about?
When Jesus was asked what the most important law is, He responded with Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus 19:18:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Duet 6:4)
“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. (Lev 19:18)
Our student ministry logo at my old church was LGLO - Love God - Love people.
When we speak against and judge fellow believers, we break the royal law of love.
With shattering bluntness, James crushes any right his readers may have claimed to sit in judgement over their neighbors. He is rooting out a harsh, unkind, critical spirit that is constantly finding fault with others.
He ends this section - “You there! Who are you to judge your neighbor?”
We are not God. And when we try to play God in other’s life, it often leads to quarrels and fights and hurt feelings.
Just before Mother’s Day earlier this year, the Princess of Wales, Kate, released a Mother’s day photo of her with the three royal children.
Conspiracy theories and England’s tabloid press immediately jumped on this picture, claiming it was photoshopped in 16 difference places.
Why would Kate do this? She hadn’t been seen in public in months. Not since a “planned abdominal surgery” in January.
Rumors swirled. She had plastic surgery on her face. That’s not actually her in the picture because she was in a coma. The picture proved that she was having an affair with another man. She had been adducted by aliens. It even had a name - Kategate.
On September 9, Princess Kate released a three minute video explaining that she had cancer and had been undergoing chemotherapy.
Actor Blake Lively was among the first to make a statement online apologizing for her now-deleted Instagram post, a Photoshop joke inspired by the manipulated Mother’s Day photo released by Kensington Palace.
“I’m sure no one cares today but I feel like I have to acknowledge this,” Lively wrote in an Instagram story. “I made a silly post around the ‘photoshop fails’ frenzy, and oh man, that post has me mortified today. I’m sorry.”
Many other people, from movie stars to normal people took to social media to offer their apologies to the Princess.
Do you think these people will learn the lesson? Will we?
James has one more command in this chapter.
Don’t play God with Yourself
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
James will use the words, “Now listen” to also start chapter 5.
He pictures a businessman, a trader, going from town to town, on one of the many trade routes.
“You who say” is in the present tense. This is how they continually talk.
They make the decision as to their time and schedule, the locations they travel to, the duration of their stay, and how much success they will have.
Wait, isn’t that a good thing? Is James against planning for the future?
Solomon wrote:
“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” (Prov 21:5)
And to his kids who slept a little too late on a Saturday morning,
“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” (Prov 6:6-8)
Making goals isn’t bad but goals will disappoint us if we leave God out of them.
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James accuses them of practical atheism. They act like they are in control of their lives.
When Napoleon was planning to invade Russia, a very bad idea, several advisors tried to talk him out of it. Finally, one said, “Man proposes. God disposes.” Napoleon turned to him and said, “I propose and dispose as well!” We all know how that turned out.
He then calls it like it is. No matter how important these people think they are, their lives are fleeting and fragile.
He compares our lives to a midst. This is a word picture of seeing your breath on a really cold day. It’s there and then it’s gone.
Scripture continually affirms this idea.
David writes:
“Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.” (Psalm 144:3-4)
Job writes:
“As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return. He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.” (Job 7:9-10)
David again:
“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days, let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.” (Psalm 39:4-5)
Jesus told the parable about a certain rich man whose grounded yielded an abundant harvest:
“He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” (Luke 12:17-20)
Moses wrote a prayer in Psalm 90 that included “teach is to number our days.” (Psalm 90:12)
The death rate is still 100%.
We often think that this is the land of the living, and that when we die; we go to the land of the dead. This could not be any more wrong. This is the land of the dying. We are all dying.
We don’t know how and we don’t know when, but each of us has a date with death.
A powerful lawyer asked his assistant to go get the office some coffee. The assistant went down the road on a busy Chicago street to get the coffee. That’s when he saw him, “Death.”
Death gave him an evil look and it frightened him so much that he ran back to the office, without the coffee, and asked the boss if he could borrow his car. He was going to drive to Indianapolis and stay with their cousin.
Later that afternoon, the lawyer went to go get the coffee and ran into death. He asked death why he had given his assistant such an evil look and startled him. Death explained that he didn’t give him an evil look but it was a look of surprise. He didn’t expect to see him in Chicago. He had a date with the assistant later that night, in Indianapolis.
Instead of being presumptuous about our lives, we should respond in humility:
Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
Paul had this humility:
When he was leaving Corinth and they asked him to stay, he declined, promising, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” (Acts 18:21)
This is a declaration that our time, our destination, our plans are in his hands and we totally trust Him.
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” (Prov 27:1)
Many Christians in the early church ended their letters with the letters “D.V.” - Deo Volente, which means, “If it be God’s will.”
One pastor said that we should write our plans in pencil and then give God the eraser.
Bob Price, the founder of World Vision, prayed this prayer every morning,
“Lord, I give you the right to change my plans and You don’t have to inform me in advance.”
The Rope
He got up early to kiss his wife goodbye. He loved his job and he was good at it. The numbers from the last quarter were up and he was going to get a raise.
His twin sons were at Ivy league schools, both on scholarship. He loves his wife more than the day they married 25 years ago.
He’s in great shape. He finished third in his age group in the last marathon.
He looks out of his office window at the beautiful blue sky and thinks that this is going to be a great day.
He works for Cantor - Fitzgerald. His office is on the 105 floor of World Trade Center Tower #2 in downtown New York. The date is September 11, 2001.
He had no idea when he got up that morning that it was his last morning here on earth.
God knows your birthdate and he knows your death date:
David writes that God knows those things before you were even born:
“Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:16)
This red line on the rope represents your life and the rest of the rope represents eternity.
In one hundred years, every single person in this room will be gone. When our life is over here, we go to the land of the living –either to a place of eternal joy that the Bible calls heaven or to a place of eternal torment that the Bible calls hell.
Where are you planning to spend your one millionth birthday?
Are you ready to die?
Jim Elliot prayed, “When it comes time for me to die, please let the only thing left to do is to die.”
To not acknowledge our finiteness before God is arrogant and evil.
James ends where he began in chapter 2:
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
To James, you can talk until you are blue in the face but if you don’t actually do anything, you’re a fraud.
He is highlighting the sins of commission and the sins of omission.
The sins of commission are universally applicable to all. Do not lie, steal, throw the cat in the dryer.
The sins of omission apply to you as an individual. It’s when God makes it clear that He wants you to do something, and you don’t do it.
Tony Campolo died this week. He was one of the most amazing story-telling pastors I’ve ever heard. One of my favorite stories is about Agnus.
Tony was at a speaking engagement in Honolulu, Hawaii, and because he lives on the east coast his body was six hours ahead of Hawaiian time. At three o-clock in the morning it felt like nine o-clock to him.
Awake and hungry for breakfast, he found himself in a "greasy spoon" café in the small hours of the morning. As he bit into his doughnut, eight or nine prostitutes walked in. They had just finished for the night. Their talk was loud and crude, and it was difficult to avoid listening in. He heard one tell the others it was her birthday the following day.
"What do you want from me? A birthday cake?" was the sarcastic reply.
"Why be so mean?" she replied, "I was just telling you. I don’t expect anything. I’ve never had a birthday party. I’m not expecting to have one now."
When Campolo heard this he made a decision. When the women left, he went over to the café owner, a guy called Harry. "Do they always come in here?"
"Yes," said Harry.
"Including the one who sat next to me?"
"Yes, that’s Agnes. Why do you want to know?"
"Because I heard her say it’s her birthday tomorrow and I thought we might throw her a party."
After a pause, a smile grew across Harry’s lips. "That’d be a great idea."
Half past two the next morning, Campolo brought the decorations and Harry had baked a cake. Word had got out and it seemed as if every prostitute in Honolulu was in the café.
When Agnes entered with her friends, she was flabbergasted. Her mouth fell open and her knees wobbled. As she sat on a stool, everyone sang "Happy Birthday".
"Blow out the candles!" people shouted, but in the end Harry had to do it for her.
Then he handed her a knife. "Cut the cake, Agnes, so we can all have some."
Agnes looked at the cake. Then slowly said, "Is it alright … would you mind … if I wait a little longer … if we didn’t eat it straight away?"
"Sure. It’s okay," said Harry. "Take it home if you want"’
"Can I?" Agnes said, "Can I take it home now? I’ll be back in a few minutes." And with that she left, carrying her precious cake out the café. There was a stunned silence.
Campolo then said, "What do you say we pray?" And they did.
Campolo lead a group of prostitutes in prayer at 3:30 in the morning.
?When they were done, Harry said, "Hey! You never told me you were some kind of preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?"
Campolo answered, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning."
Harry thought for a moment. Then he kind of sneered, "No you don’t. There’s no church like that. I’d be a part of a church like that.”
Wouldn't we all.
Ending Song: Christ our Hope in Life and Death
