A Self-Centered Life, Part 3 (2024-09-01)

A Self-Centered Life, Part 3.

This is another one of those really happy sections of Scripture.

For the last couple of Sundays, I've been trying to make the point that there are only

two kinds of people in this world today, those who love themselves and those who love Jesus

Christ.

There is no third classification of people.

And this passage that we just read, and really all the way back to the last verses of chapter

3, have told us that those who love themselves are full of pride.

They base their lives upon human wisdom that is demonic, that is based upon their own senses

or their own observation or their own judgment.

About things.

Whereas those who love the Lord Jesus Christ are those who base their lives upon heavenly

wisdom.

Unlike human wisdom that is destructive, heavenly wisdom from God revealed in Scripture is peaceable

and it produces righteousness.

Now those who love themselves will often say they love God and they will try to dull the

distinction made between the two groups.

But understand that when they talk about God, they are talking about figments of their

own imagination.

They are gods whom they have created in their own minds.

Like one philosopher said by the name of Fraba, the rationalist who tried to figure out everything

by reason, they believe God is a product of their reason, a figment and extension of their

reason.

The subjectivist who tried to figure out everything on the basis of their experiences in life

say, unlike the rationalist, God is what I think him to be.

The experientialist say, God is what I feel him to be.

Well, I feel God is like this.

The rationalist says, I feel that God is such and such.

Fraba said, I feel that God is such and such.

When the rationalist says, God is as I think he is, and the experientialist say, God is

what I feel him to be, they are both saying, man, with a loud voice.

So just because someone talks about God, understand that for many, God is something that they

have created in their own minds and they are not real lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in chapters 3 and 4, we have seen several characteristics of those who live a self-centered

life, a life full of self-love, and we saw the consequences of that type of life.

The last time we were together, I got down to James chapter 4, verse 11, and look at that with

me again, if you will.

He says, do not speak.

Which in Greek says, do not speak down to, or do not slander.

Do not speak against one another, brethren.

He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges

the law, but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it.

Now, those people who always like to misinterpret, judge not, that you be not judged.

Love this passage of scripture.

How many times have you been told, when you make some kind of negative statement about,

say, an abortionist or a homosexual, etc., well, you're judging the Bible, and the Bible

says not to judge.

Not only did Jesus say it, but here we have it, right here in the 11th verse of the 4th

chapter of James.

Now, there are several problems with that.

There are several problems with that view that says we're not to judge people, and the

first is, you can't help but judge.

You make judgments every day in assessments and diagnosis.

If you are a judge in a courtroom, you are going to make judgments.

If you are a doctor, you are going to make judgments.

If you are a civil magistrate, you are going to make judgments.

I mean, if you have children, you are going to make judgments.

You can't help but make judgments about people, places, and things.

The unbeliever actually does, when he says, shame on you for judging people, for he is

judging you for judging people.

So, the first problem with the idea that the Bible says,

don't judge anyone else ever, but be tolerant of everything, is that it is impossible to

do.

The second reason that we should give people is, there's no such statement in the Bible

that says, don't judge people.

Don't be judgmental.

There's no such verse.

Now, people will say, well, Jesus said, judge not that you be not judged.

Well, turn with me, if you will, to Matthew 7, to see what everyone thinks Jesus is saying

there in the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew chapter 7, it's saying something quite different.

The opposite, in fact, of what those who say, when they say, you shouldn't judge people

for the things that they do.

Matthew 7, chapter, Matthew chapter 7, verse 1.

Do not judge.

Do not judge, lest you be judged.

For in the way you judged, you will be judged.

And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, and behold, not the log that is in your

own eye, you hypocrite?

First take the log out of your own eye, and you will see clearly to take the speck out

of your brother's eye.

So, what is Jesus saying?

Don't ever judge.

Don't ever judge another person.

Is that what he's saying here?

No, he says, number one, don't judge another person except by the standard by which you

judge yourself.

And when you judge another person, judge yourself with just as much severity.

You know, we judge other people who are homosexuals or perverted, but then when we judge ourselves,

we do so.

We do so a little milder.

The judgments we make about ourselves are not quite as strong.

So, Jesus is saying, judge people, but make sure you use the standard of the word of God

to do it, and make sure you don't cheat on yourself and judge yourself just as severely

as you judge other people.

You see, he's condemning the Pharisees here.

They were hypocritical.

They were always judging everyone on minute details, not even found in Holy Scripture.

For instance, they made all kinds of laws that are not found anywhere in the Bible.

One law was that on the Sabbath, you could only travel a certain distance, and if you

traveled one step beyond that distance, you could only travel a certain distance.

You were sinning.

Well, sometimes these Pharisees wanted to go a little further than the allowed Sabbath

distance, so they would actually take bags of dirt from their own property, and they

would walk the distance allowed, and then they would put the bag of dirt from their

own property on the ground, step on it, and then start over again.

Of course, they would condemn others if they went one step beyond what they thought one

should travel.

So the point is, Jesus is not condemning you for evaluating people.

He is condemning the hyper-criticism of the Pharisees that was not based at all upon the

law of God found in Holy Scripture, but it was based on their own made-up rules.

So if you judge another person, and you say,

concerning that other person, ah, you know, she wears such tacky things, and the reason you think

she is tacky is that she simply would not wear, you would not wear the type of dress she wears.

That is what Jesus is getting at.

If you're going to judge another person, make sure that the standard you use is the word of God,

not your own.

Unless you're willing to be judged by that same standard.

Now let's go back to James.

The Bible does not ever contradict itself, right?

And remember, Jesus was James' bigger brother.

And there are more resemblances to what Jesus taught in the book of James than any other book

in the New Testament.

So we are to interpret what James said in terms of what Jesus said.

And James said, someone who lives for himself, someone who lives for pleasure, he is in love with himself.

And our text says, this person, he causes division and conflict, and he delights in being hypocritical of other people.

After all, I'm better than you, so I'm going to cut you down to my size.

It basically says here,

don't talk down to other people.

In other words, don't talk to another person or criticize another person to bring him down below you

so you can lift yourself above him and feel better about yourself.

Don't be hyper-judgmental.

Don't be pharisaical.

Don't speak down to your brother.

Don't judge your brother harshly, except by the standard of the word.

And notice the reason he gives.

It says,

He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother,

hyper-criticism,

speaks against the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it.

In other words, James is saying,

the law of God forbids slandering other people.

It forbids it throughout the New Testament.

It forbids it in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Proverbs.

Over and over again,

the Bible forbids us to judge other people by a different standard than Scripture itself.

It forbids us to slander other people.

And if you deliberately slander other people,

or make them look low so you can look large,

you are not only breaking the law of God,

you are breaking the law of God.

You are breaking the law of God.

You are judging the law, it says here.

And you're saying, we are not supposed to judge.

You're saying, this law is not worthy of my obedience.

And my assessment of the law that forbids slander is,

it doesn't apply to me.

So every time you're hypocritical of someone else and slander someone else,

you are making yourself a judge of the law.

And you are saying, it is not worthy even of my consideration.

Now notice the next sentence.

He says, you're not really doing the law of God.

You're just judging it.

And then he says, there is only one lawgiver and judge,

the one who is able to save and to destroy.

But who are you to judge your neighbor?

So you know what the law of God is.

You know what the law of God forbids.

And you break it.

And by doing so, you say, it's not worthy of me.

I don't have to deal with it.

I'm better than that.

And you're putting yourself in God's place.

You're saying, I am the lawgiver of my life.

I determine what is right and wrong, good and bad,

true and false, beautiful and ugly,

real and illusionary for myself.

So I don't need God.

I don't need God to do it.

After all, this law was written over a 1,500-year period

in all kinds of cultures in a primitive agrarian society of the Middle East.

And I'm better than that.

I live in the great 21st century, after all.

So don't force your antiquated, Aquarian law on me.

I'm better.

I'm the lawgiver.

I'm the lawgiver for my own life.

You know, that's what Adam and Eve said.

God said, you can eat of any tree in the garden you want to eat of,

but don't eat of that one.

There was nothing magical about it.

We don't even know what kind of tree it was.

It could have been any kind of tree.

But God said,

the reason I don't want you,

to eat of that tree,

is because I don't want you to forget

who the real lawgiver is.

And it is not you.

So Adam and Eve look at the tree.

They eat from it.

And by doing so, they were saying,

we have a better ability to judge than God does.

And there's nothing about this tree that's going to kill us.

So they followed their own law word.

And you know,

you know the rest of the story.

Now, the interesting thing about that word lawgiver

is that there are those who act as if there is only one time

lawgiver is mentioned in all of scripture.

And that was in the Old Testament.

So there used to be a lawgiver.

But now that the Mosaic law is obsolete,

we don't have to deal with that any longer.

Verse 12.

There is and there continues to be

only one lawgiver and judge

who is able to save and destroy.

He's alluding there to Isaiah 33, 22,

which is one of my favorite verses in the Old Testament,

where it says,

God is our lawgiver.

God is our judge.

God is our king.

And he will save us.

And all these ideas,

are right here in our text in James.

James is saying the God of the Old Testament,

Jehovah, is the one lawgiver.

People will say he's talking,

oh, they're about Jesus,

not the Old Testament God.

Well, that is true.

Or we could say he's talking about Jesus.

But who is Jesus?

Jesus is Jehovah in human flesh.

In John 1, 14, it says,

And the word became flesh and tabernacled among us,

and we beheld his Shekinah glory

as the only begotten of the Father,

full of grace and truth.

Jesus is the God of the Old Testament in human form.

He is the one lawgiver.

Have you ever heard anyone say

that Jesus in the New Testament

gives us a higher law

than Jesus?

Than the Old Testament?

How can it be a higher law

if the same God is the source of both?

God gave us the Ten Commandments.

God gave us the Mosaic legislation.

God gave us the various other moral laws

in the Old Testament.

And that God became a man

in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And there continues to be one lawgiver.

Not a different lawgiver in the Old Testament

than the New Testament,

but one lawgiver of all the laws

found throughout Holy Scripture.

I've had people say,

well, you know, such and such moral law

doesn't apply anymore.

And when they say that,

they're not actually criticizing

a modern application of the law.

They are criticizing the law itself.

Let me give you an example.

There was a famous preacher

who one time criticized

this particular law.

He said, in the Old Testament,

there is a law that tells parents

to kill their children

if they are disobedient.

Well, first of all,

there's no such law anywhere in the Bible.

Well, there is a law in the Bible that says

if you have young adults in your house

and they are blasphemous

and wicked and incorrigible,

then you are to turn them over to the courts

and they are to be tried for a capital crime.

But not little children.

I mean, all my children are still alive today

and trust me, they were all disobedient

as they were growing up.

But what's the point?

What was the preacher doing?

He was trying to make a law in the Bible look bad.

He was asking,

he was actually trying to make God look bad.

But there's only one lawgiver.

There's only one place in the whole universe

where you can go to distinguish good from evil

and right from wrong,

and that is in Holy Scripture.

From Genesis to Revelation,

there remains one lawgiver,

the God who gave us the Ten Commandments

and the statutes of the Old Testament,

who became the man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we are justified,

just as obligated to obey the Ten Commandments

and the various applications of the law of God

in the Old Testament

as we are to obey anything that Jesus said

because there is only one lawgiver.

God does not call upon any of us

to live by any form of our own laws.

You and I do not have the authority.

You meaning you as a person,

you as a father,

you as a mother,

you as a civil magistrate,

as an elder or preacher.

You do not have the authority

to create your own laws and live by them.

Your one duty and responsibility

as a person made in the image of God

and also as a Christian

is to obey the laws of Holy Scripture.

Now God has been so good to us.

He's not only the lawgiver.

He is not only,

He's not only given us ten big ones

with general sweeping authority

and those Ten Commandments

applying to everything

are never to be broken under any circumstances.

But He also gave us a few hundred core laws,

statutes by which He shows

how the various ten big ones are to be applied

in everyday life.

You know, all the Proverbs

are based on one of the Ten Commandments.

In the historical books of the Old Testament,

1st and 2nd Samuel, etc.

He shows us what happens

if you disobey God's law

or if you obey it.

In the poetic books of the Bible,

the Psalms, Song of Solomon, etc.

He puts the laws in poetic form.

In fact, in Psalm 119,

David says,

we sing your law.

In the Prophets,

you have the Prophets,

calling the children of Israel to repentance

and telling them,

you will have a glorious future

if you repent

and go back to obeying the laws of God.

And he says the same thing

to four nations.

Jeremiah lists a whole series of nations

and says,

God will judge you

unless

you obey the Ten Commandments

and the laws of the Mosaic legislation.

Then it is said,

in the New Testament,

you have Jesus teaching

and you have the apostles teaching.

Are they all teaching a different ethical system?

Are they all giving different opinions

and principles to live by?

There is only one lawgiver

and that one lawgiver is a judge.

The judge before whom

every one of us is going to stand before.

And he is the one who wrote the laws

by which we are to live

and will be judged upon.

Do you think

we have a chance someday

when we stand before the lawgiver

and we put ourselves above the law of God

and say,

well, I just didn't think

we were supposed to obey that one.

Well, that one,

I know it's obsolete.

And that one is extreme.

That one is harsh and unloving.

And that one is just unjust.

Do you think that's going to get you anywhere with God?

You don't like my law?

Well, where do you think

you're going to spend eternity then?

There is only one lawgiver

and that one lawgiver is the judge

before whom all men will stand.

So you better not put yourself

above any of God's law.

You better not say,

well, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter whether I slander

or talk down to some people.

God says it does matter.

When you know what I demand of you

and you do not do it,

that means you are trying to play God

in your own life.

You know, the most devastating thing

a nation can do

is change its lawgiver.

When you change your lawgiver,

you change your God.

That was an amazing thing

to the problem.

The prophets,

they couldn't get over Israel changing gods,

changing the one true and living God

for a broken vessel

that couldn't even hold water.

In the United States today,

for several generations,

we have rejected the one and only true lawgiver

as the basis of our morality

and our ethics

and our civil laws

and the way we raise our children.

We have thrown

him out.

He's literally out of date.

After all, he hasn't kept up

with Benjamin Spock

and all the other domestic psychiatrists

like Dr. Ruth.

We have thrown him out.

Abortion may have been a bad thing

a long time ago,

but today there must be something wrong with you

if you don't champion it.

And the same thing goes

for homosexuality and transgenderism.

They were all evil a long time ago,

but that was just America's

primitive mind.

Senator Bernie Sanders

several years ago said

to Christians,

America was not established

for people like you.

I mean, who does he think

America was established for?

A bunch of Muslims?

It is a distinctively Christian

and reformed way of life

that lays at the very foundation

and basis

of America.

Bernie Sanders changed

lawgivers and he changed

judges. And now he thinks

he is the judge.

So any law you live by,

Bernie says, I'm going to judge

if it is worthy or not.

And he will one day stand before God,

the judge,

and he will be reminded

that he did not believe in the living God

as the lawgiver, and he did not

believe in him.

He did not believe in him as a judge.

And God will condemn him

to hell, as many of his other

buddies in Congress

and the Senate.

Live by the laws of God

if you are a Christian.

Why? Because it is the law

of liberty.

That is what it says here in James.

It is the perfect law

of liberty, and that means it can't be

made any more perfect.

It is comprehensive.

It applies to every area.

Are you seeking to live

by the law of God

and teaching your children

to love that law?

Are you teaching your children

that there is only one lawgiver

and that he is the judge before whom

someday we will all stand?

Then notice what he goes on to say

in verse 12.

There is only one lawgiver and judge,

the one who is able to save and destroy.

Man would sure love

to be that, wouldn't he?

But God is the only one

who has the sovereign right to do

what he will with every single

human being, to save us

by his grace or to judge us

eternally and display the glory

of his justice.

He is able to destroy

and he is able to save.

Is he going to destroy

anyone who doesn't deserve it?

No, he's going to save.

Is he going to save anyone

who doesn't deserve to be saved?

Yes.

For he is sovereign.

So don't try to play God

in your own life.

Then he asks the pointed question

in verse 12.

Who are you then who judges your neighbor

and slanders and talks down to them

as if you were God putting them

in their place?

God is the only one who can put anyone

in their place.

And he will.

Because there's only one lawgiver

and one judge.

But that is just the foolish, unwise,

evil way,

someone thinks who is in love

with himself.

Then in verse 13,

we have something that might pinch

just a bit.

This is about the way

a self-centered person lives

who doesn't recognize his dependence

on God, but who depends

on himself and his own abilities.

Verse 13.

Come now, you who say today

or tomorrow we will go to such

and such a city and spend a year there

and engage in business and make a

project.

And you do not know

what your life will be like tomorrow.

You are just a vapor

that appears for a little while

and then vanishes away.

Instead, you ought to say,

if the Lord wills,

we shall live and also

do this or that.

But as it is, you boast in your

arrogance and self-confidence.

And you wouldn't think

of such a thing as

if the Lord wills because

my free will determines the course of

my life.

But as it is,

you boast in your arrogance

and all such boasting

is evil.

Now,

there were several rich people in this church

and I'm sure also

there were many such people

in that society

who were described as opposers

of the church who lived

lives of luxury.

They didn't worry about anyone else.

They stepped on

whoever they had to step on

to get where they wanted to get to.

So he brings this up

over and over and he says,

I want to talk to you businessmen now.

Now,

most people in Israel in the first century

were farmers.

But not all of them.

Some of them were merchants that traveled

all over the Mediterranean

and some of them were

very successful bankers.

So these people particularly

could be tempted to trust

in themselves and be full

of self-confidence.

After all, I've accomplished what I have

accomplished with my own hands.

I don't have to thank anyone else

for it. So when I say

I'm going to do this tomorrow,

I'm going to go to such and such

a city, I'm going to spend a year

there, I'm going to engage in business,

I'm going to make money,

I will. Why?

Because I

trust in myself.

And James says,

I want to talk to you for a minute.

I want to talk to you

bankers and merchants who say you've got

your life all planned and

nothing's going to interfere with your plans

for your life or your business.

There are two

things you need to know.

Don't you know that your life

is like a vapor?

You don't know what

tomorrow will bring. You think

you do, but you don't.

You're just a vapor.

Just a

little puff of smoke

that appears for a little while and then

vanishes away.

And that's the extent of your life.

You think you can live

forever. You think you can

determine how you're going to live

by all your insurance policies

and everything else you do.

But your life, Mr.

Banker, Mr.

Merchant, is just a

little puff of smoke.

Instead of just making these declarations,

like today I'm going to

do this, tomorrow

I'm going to do that, I'm going

to go to this city, I'm going to

stay here, I'm going to make a

bunch of money because I'm such

a good capitalist,

you must say,

if the Lord wills,

I will go to this city.

If the Lord wills,

I will stay there for a

certain amount of time. If the

Lord wills, I'll make some

money while I'm there.

So verse 16,

don't boast in your own

arrogance and self-confidence.

It will get you nowhere because

you are just a puff of smoke.

And God is

sovereign and He controls

every area of life.

Now,

that's as practical a message

as we can get.

When you're talking to people,

fellow employees

at work, or fellow students,

or neighbors,

and you say, you're going to do

something, and I want to come

and see you, I'm

going to make this business call,

this appointment, so I'm going to

see you next weekend.

How many times after

they do

that do you add

the Lord

willing?

You say, Gary, I really do believe

that in my heart,

but I don't want to appear to look like

a religious fanatic.

I don't want this person

who's not a Christian at all, a secularist,

to be turned off

by me using these

theological terms.

Okay.

So then you are starting

to speak like a

secular humanist.

That's what you're really doing.

Well, in my heart,

I believe God is in control of

everything, but to go around and tell

people if God is

willing, I'm not going to

do that or say, praise the Lord

for that, etc.

Beloved, if you

are embarrassed at these things,

and if you think it will turn

people off,

then believe me, it will

turn them off.

So your other choice

is to talk like a

humanist, an anti-Christian.

Do you know who puts us to shame

whenever they appear on

TV?

Muslim terrorists.

Because whenever they talk about God,

the wrong God,

they always put

at the end of their sentence, always

listen carefully,

the Lord willing,

if God wills,

all the time.

Don't

talk like a

humanist. Don't think you

have to compromise your Christian

faith.

Remember what James says about

the tongue? That if your

heart has changed, if you

have the word of God in your heart, it is

going to make a difference in the way

you talk.

Are you going to talk like the world?

Or are you in your business situations

and in everything else

going to use the phrase

if the Lord is willing,

God willing,

if the Lord allows?

Just do it and see what

happens. Because it is,

it is an act of obedience.

James just flat out

says it here in our text, that

it is obedience.

You are to believe in your heart that God

is sovereign, and you are to speak

the way to people whenever you

have conversations with them.

I'm going

to purchase a new Tesla tomorrow,

the Lord willing.

I'm going to go to New York

in three weeks, if the

Lord wills it.

Now,

there

are a lot of ways you can say it.

When you write emails and you say

something about what you're going to do

in the future, at the end

of that email or in texting or in

messaging, just put,

God willing. It would be interesting

to know, but I'm not going to ask

for a show of hands to see

how many of us use

the Lord willing as a daily expression

of our faith.

For sure, the self-centered person who loves

himself doesn't say it because he doesn't

believe it. He trusts in God.

He trusts in himself.

Verse 16,

he boasts in his arrogance, so

verse 17, therefore

to one who knows

the right thing to do and does not do it,

to him it is a

sin. Let me read that to you

again. Therefore to one

who knows the right thing to do

and does not do it, to him

it is sin.

You see, that is the danger

of going to a church

where the law of God is expounded.

That is

the danger of going to a church where the

epistle of James is expounded.

You know the

right thing to do, and if

you don't do it, it is as sinful

as if you went right out and

did something evil.

You know, many Christians

pray, Lord, forgive us

for our sins of omission

and commission.

Forgive us the sins we

commit, but also we pray, Lord,

forgive us of those sins

in which we don't do what we are

supposed to do

when we omit doing

what you have called us to do.

Think for

a minute now of any

sins

over the past two days

that you have committed.

You just flat out did them.

You spoke badly of

someone. You showed off

to someone. You had a lustful

thought.

You don't have to mention many.

Maybe a couple thousand

or give or take

a few.

You think maybe?

That's nothing compared to what you

have actually done

as well as me.

So just think of what you

actually know

you committed this weekend.

Now think

of the things that God

in the Bible has commanded you

to do that you haven't done.

God has commanded you

to love not the world.

God has commanded you

to avoid every appearance of

evil. God has commanded

you to use our energy

and our money and our

resources specifically in

the advance of his kingdom.

What have you not done this

weekend that God has told

you to do?

That's a little harder to think of.

You know why?

We don't usually think of these

categories.

We normally think a sin is

something you do that is bad.

But sin is also something

you don't do

that is good.

The Shorter Catechism asks the question

what is sin?

It answers sin is any lack of

conformity unto or

transgression of the law of God.

So sin is when we

actually transgress the law

or when we fail for whatever reason

fear, forgetfulness,

etc. to bring

our lives more and more

into conformity to it.

So you and I know what is right.

I'm preaching to myself

as much as to you.

And if you know

what is right and you don't do it,

you have sinned.

And there is only one lawgiver

and one judge who is able

to destroy and save.

So are you

your own lawgiver?

Self-confident?

In love with self?

In choosing which of God's laws

you will obey?

Or are you one who loves

the law of God

and trusts in Him alone?

If you are self-righteous

thinking, you can

determine right and wrong for yourself.

Trust me.

You are destined for an eternity

of agony and hellfire.

But

the hope of glory

if you repent

and allow God to rule over you

and you live by His standards,

He will embrace you

and adopt you

into His family.

Amen. Let us pray.

Lord, these

passages cut us

to the quick.

We thank you for the way your word

and the Holy Spirit using that word

convicts us of our sins

and breaks us.

And we know, Lord, that's good.

Because when the Holy Spirit takes

the law of God like in the book of James

and cuts us with it,

the one thing we want to do is run to Christ

to seek His forgiveness

and His cleanliness

which He is more

than willing to give.

So may this message today

from this passage of Scripture

show us as we truly

are and lead us to Christ

for His glory and honor

we pray these things

in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.