James Chapter 3 Review Often called the Tongue chapter.

James chapter three, we're reviewing today. And it was gonna be a grand review and it is, but there's so much more interesting stuff that I found out that will cover some new observations in this tongue chapter. It's just, it's a really rich, it's a really rich chapter. So this, I have an outline here. It's Hal Malloy's outline.

And it's, if you look at this outline, it's all temptation. The whole book of James is on temptation. and it's outlined for each section. And it has a negative bend because temptation is negative. And you see all those things on the list, 15 temptations, all negative.

So we're at chapter three, so we're in the middle here. And today's review is temptation to misuse, temptation to misuse, not restrain the tongue is what we're studying today. And then at the last part of chapter three is wisdom. So temptation to walk in human and not divine wisdom. And then it goes on, we'll look at chapter four starting next week. So that's one negative outline of the book of James based on temptations. Now we have Ironside's outline, and he poses it like this. His first point is victorious faith in chapter one. And we looked at that, it's a faith that preserves under trial, duress, and temptation.

A perfect and complete faith lacking in nothing. Faith that produces effectual doing. And then he continues on his outline with number two, manifested faith. And we saw that in chapter two. That's a faith that does not show partiality or respect of persons. It's a faith that shows itself in love. for his neighbor according to the law of liberty. We looked at that. Faith that shows itself in good works. And faith goes hand in hand with good works. It's not by itself. It isn't dead from good works.

So we looked at that. And chapter three he has outlined as controlling and energizing faith. And that makes sense. We'll look at that more this morning. And then We haven't gotten there yet, but in chapter four, he calls that submissive faith. And then he wraps up his outline with chapter five as a patient and expected faith. And again, that's a, his outline has a positive bend, doesn't it? Because faith is positive, temptations are negative. So if you blend those two outlines, it's really, it's a neat way to outline the whole book of James, I found.

Okay, let's get on with the verses. And we're just gonna read through them quickly. There's only 18. uh... so it begins chapter three verse one let not many of you become teachers my brother knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment for we all stumble in many ways if anyone does not stumble in what he says he is a perfect man able to bride his whole body as well so the first topic we have is as we looked at in our study from a few weeks ago is teachers the care and exercising the role of teachers. And I just have this quote here from Darby, which really sums it up nicely.

He says, it is not here questioned that a single individual may exercise a ministry which God has confided to him, but on the contrary, such a ministry of teaching is permitted to any to whom the Lord has imparted the needful gift under the direction of the word. The activity of the flesh is rebuked here, and the liberty of the Holy Ghost is set forth. The Lord makes use of such a one as seems good to Him, the Lord, whether by those permanent gifts of being a teacher, pastor, or evangelist, which are to continue with us to the end, or by the ministry of each member of the body in places where God has set it. So many of you can be teachers to children, or a husband to a wife, or maybe someone at work or something. So many of us have that official role in the church, or as Darby says, it comes, the Lord brings it up as it's needed. from time to time but and so we're going to learn we learned that in doing such you need to bridle your tongue and speak truth.

I like the caveat of grace that James gives here, and that's, he says, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man. And so he gives a little bit of grace there, because we will slip up from time to time.

The perfect man or the perfect woman is one who is fully fitted out or is complete in Christ. And that's all our goal for this Earth is to end up is to be fully conformed to the image of Christ. That's what we're here on the planet to do. Note that in those two verses, the first two verses, the controlling aspect that Ironside speaks to in his outline. You know, the ability to, if we're filled with the Spirit of Christ, we're able to bridle the whole body as well. That's a controlling aspect. I have this quote here from George Bernard Shaw.

What do you think of it? Those who can do, those who can't teach. Teachers don't like that quote, but it's kind of true if you think about it. Can everyone hear me okay? Yeah, we can hear you. Okay, great, great. So that says that teachers who, so I'm leaning into you to do all this doing, because you guys are good at it much better than me, is kind of what that quote entails.

Well, it's kind of what James was saying throughout his whole book. It's a practical book. Yeah. He's teaching us to be practical, you know? Yeah, it's all practice. James, someone said that James is the dean of, the dean of the New Testament. And it's all about practical living. In fact, one of, I think it's Ironside who calls the whole book practical living. So that's a good point, Jim.

So we go on to verse four. James says, look at the ships also. Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they're still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire. And the tongue is the fire and the very world of iniquity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life, which is further set on fire by hell. So we looked at that a lot. And we got into detail this month with this part.

I like what Miles said a few weeks ago in his lesson on verses 13 through 16. He said, while everything in creation produces one kind of fruit, the tongue has this has this odd fruit-bearing capacity, which is neither evil or good, so that tongue can go both ways. depending on the source, right? And we looked at that, and Miles said that as well in his lesson. The source of what controls the tongue is the key, the key concept. Either it's the sin nature or the new nature with Christ as its source. But I like that, I like that, I quoted in there that while everything in creation produces one kind of fruit, the tongue has this odd fruit-bearing capacity which is which is either evil or good.

So up there in verse four, he talks about the rudder of a ship and how it's small in comparison to the body of the ship. But I was thinking about, first I tried to look up how a rudder steers a ship and the rudder If you look on the internet, they say the rudder doesn't steer the ship. You might think it does, but it doesn't. It doesn't turn the ship. So they go into, it's very scientific. The flow of the water, and then it's displaced, and then the rudder creates an angle of inclination, and it's too scientific to explain, and I don't understand it.

But I was thinking about, you have a rudder, and then a mechanism that goes through the rudder stock, and then it's connected to some hydraulic cables, and that leads to the bridge of the ship, and finally the helm of the ship where the steering wheel is, right? So what I'm saying is, there's a helmsman of the rudder, isn't there? Just like, So there's someone controlling that tongue, whether it's the sin nature or the new nature. And I just, I thought that was cool that all that internal workings of ship and how in point D here, I say that the yaw and that's the yaw of the ship or the rudder is this motion that controls, you know, either left or right, that's the yaw. But a tongue would have pitch and roll too, like a plane has pitch and roll. And that all traces back to the helm. And the helm, I think, is our heart, isn't it? So what comes from our heart controls our tongue is the point I'm trying to make.

I just thought that was interesting. We looked a lot at that the tongue has a conflagrant ability, ability to start fires, and you see it up there in verse five. It can set a great forest on fire. And then I was thinking, well, if it has that ability, it probably has a cooling ability too, a containment ability. You can contain situations with the use of your tongue.

Do you think that's a valid point? Yeah, again, it depends on the source of where it's coming from. Yeah. The source of where our speech is coming from. Yeah, because it can bring peace and settle things down as well. Yeah. Right, yeah. You can talk people down and cool situations. And they say, let cooler heads prevail. And James doesn't mention that, but I think it does have, I guess, like a fire extinguisher, a retardant ability to quench anger and things like that, and quench people's emotions. So that's just a point. I thought about that, that's interesting. The tongue is untamable unless it's, as Jim says, connected to the right source.

In Romans 16, Paul had this to say to the Romans. He said, now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances, contrary to the teaching which you learned. and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not to our Lord Jesus Christ, but to their own appetites. And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting." That's Romans 16, 17 through 18. And it's just interesting that What Paul says there to the believers in Rome, that there's these false teachers, these fleshly teachers, same as in James chapter 3 verse 1, so that with speech these teachers have the ability to lead believers astray. a believer's hearts could be converted away from the truth through the use of the tongue. So that sort of ties in nicely to this use of the tongue and teaching and wisdom. So how are we to, and then I have the point too, that if you look at what Paul says in 17 and 18 of chapter 16 in Romans, You see that those false teachers are slaves.

He calls them slaves, not to our Lord or our Lord Christ, but to their own appetites. So they're slaves to their sin nature, their lust and their appetite. And they're not bond servants to Christ. Again, that's a issue of source, right? And who are you serving? So how are we to manifest, how should faith manifest itself in the operation of Tom? What's the biblical way, is what I want to say. And Paul answers that for us too.

In Colossians, Colossians 3.8 and Colossians 4.6, he says, put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. There's the use of the tongue, abusive speech from your mouth. Let your speech always be with charis or grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. And that, again, if tempers are flared, you can cool people's tempers by what you say, things that are seasoned with salt, the right thing to say to the right person at the right time. That's godly wisdom coming through. Oh, I should read before I leave this page, seven, eight, I should read these verses so we know where we're at in this review.

So beginning in verse seven through 12 of James chapter three, James says, for every species of birds, beasts and birds of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. No one can tame the Tom. It is a restless evil, full of deadly ponies. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the image and likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. So the tongue is untamable. So continuing on in our review, I have a summarizing thought from a good one from Darby. Is someone on? Does someone have their mic on? Is that Mike? Yeah, it's Mike. Mike, can you mute your Zoom? It's got the audio on? Yeah.

Okay, so Darby says, but if no man can restrain the tongue, the grace of Christ can do it. For the inner man on the one side is under the yoke of the Lord and is meek and lowly in heart. And he continues, Christ fills the heart and thus precisely because the tongue follows the impulses of the heart, the speech will express this meekness and lowliness. For this, it is needful that Christ alone should dwell there and the flesh be so held in check that when temptation comes, it may not stir.

And this last part is really good. He says, it is difficult not to fail. So there you have, again, as James says, we all stumble in many ways. And Darby says, it is difficult not to fail. But it is very useful to see that the tongue shows what is working within, just as the hands of a clock shows the hidden workings of its wheels. And I like that last part. That's a very encouraging quote, Andrew. I love that. Yeah, yeah.

And I think I would call it the hands of a clock show the hidden workings of the gears, right? I think of them as gears. back behind those hands which he kind of compares to the tongue. But so that as the hands of a watch are move, what's really going on are those gears and those springs behind it, right? And that was the point I was trying to make with that the steering column of the ship, you know, that connected to the rudder and it's got cables and leads up to the helm.

So I thought that was really good. And that again is from John Nelson Darby. I think what's nice about that is that so much of James is, you know, you kind of get the sense of the negative. Yeah, appropriately, but Darby bringing out the grace of Christ. It's so beautiful because that's I mean, that's just so encouraging Yeah, I find that That's true. Jimmy that James kind of focuses on the negative doesn't he? but it's it it's kind of got to be said and he just lays it out and It has a negative bend to it, but then there are certain positive parts to this epistle. At least you can see what the source is coming from in your speech, whether it's good or evil.

Yeah, and that again goes back to those two springs, you know, the bitter water or the fresh water. Right. Two trees, the fig tree and the olive tree. It's like Miles said in his lesson from a few weeks ago, it's all about source. Yeah, it is. It's basically all goes back to the source. Yeah. At least we can choose between the sources.

The unsaved person cannot. Right, right. All they have is the old nature, the old man. That's the only thing. And I guess the old man can do some good things once in a while, but it's not sourced from Christ, is it? Right. It doesn't apply to their salvation at all. Yeah, yeah. So continuing on, James, he Part two of chapter three kind of transitions from the tom to wisdom. And he says in verse 13 through 15, he says, who among you is wise and understanding?

Let him show by his good behavior, his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic." Miles had in his lessons from the 9th of July, he matched up earthly, natural, and demonic to earthly is worldly, natural is fleshly, and demonic is of the devil or of Satan. And I like that, how those line up like that. That was an interesting point that he brought up.

Merriman says that that question in the first part of verse 13 is a rhetorical question, of course, but in the Greek it reads, he says it reads this way, who among you is a wise one and who among you is an understanding one? So he's making two distinctions. There's the wise ones and the understanding ones. And he's asking them who among you is either or who among you is both.

Merriman has this as the definition of wisdom, the ability to apply divine viewpoint fact. And I like that definition. That's a good definition. And it kind of lines up with Miles's definition from a few weeks ago. His definition was skill and living, or skillful living. And I think I had the ability to, now I can't remember what my definition was. Oh, the ability to apply knowledge is what mine was, or the ability to apply biblical knowledge.

Maybe that's what Paul was talking about in Colossians 4, 6, when he says, let your speech be seasoned with salt. Maybe he's saying, let your speech be able to apply divine viewpoint. Yeah, right. Or some people say that salt, let it be seasoned with salt. I think Macaulay said that, Your speech should have a seasoning to it that it's pleasant, like a meal with salt. It's just pleasant to the taste. Or you could say, some people say that the salt is the ability to, if you have a wound and you put salt in it, or it's a preserving factor. So there's a lot of thoughts about that, what that salt in speech kind of refers to.

When James says, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, in verse 14, that's a first-class conditional statement. So it's better read, since you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. And he doesn't answer this question, but he instead in verse 14, in verse 14 gives an admonition instead of an answer. And so Merriman said that these Jewish scattered believers could be exhibiting these behaviors of jealousy, selfish ambition.

So there's probably a problem with these people that James was addressing. And that's a good point. I think he could have been addressing what he was hearing about from these believers who were scattered abroad, right? That's how we started James. The first verse was to the 12 tribes scattered abroad.

Merriman also has a good point. James is interested in wise, meek and gentle application of divine viewpoint fact. He is not interested in tongue wagging. That's a Merrimanism, tongue wagging. Again, as in chapter two, James says, let me see your good deeds and your divine heaven generated wisdom. which is not arrogant, not ambitious, and not jealous. So it's, James likes to be shown deeds and works and good behavior, right? That's sort of a theme of James, to be shown.

Moving on here, this wisdom, this, This wisdom, in verse 15, it says, this wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic. So the wisdom he's talking about there is the earthly or natural wisdom. Merriman, I got a lot from Merriman this week, and he calls it pseudo-wisdom. I like that. I like that description. Pseudo-wisdom.

That's not heavenly wisdom. That doesn't come down from above. But he made this point that I didn't see when I was studying this. He said that's a present middle So it's wisdom that keeps on coming down, the present tense. Wisdom keeps on coming down from above. It doesn't stop. So is that not a blessing when you think of it? Wisdom that is divine keeps on coming down from God, from heaven. Like, you know, like manna, I want to think of, or rain, or something like that.

That's an interesting point. The pseudo-wisdom, or the earthly, natural wisdom, results in a self-promotion attitude. And Miles, he said, he had this definition of that word, that selfish ambition as electioneering or intriguing for an office, a desire to put oneself forward. That's what that means, that bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, and that comes from earthly wisdom. So it's really bad stuff there, that earthly wisdom.

So on to verse 16 and 17 in our review here. 16 says, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there's disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering and without hypocrisy. Last week, yeah. My point here, the first point is, I was trying to get out a definition of what this heavenly wisdom is, wisdom from above.

But I left out two key things. And I think Roy Smith was trying to point this out during the lesson, but I couldn't hear him. And he said that you've got to have truth and you've got to have correct knowledge. And there has to be truth in it. That's essential in achieving wisdom.

So then I came up with this definition, which melds together Roy's comments about truth, and then Merriman's definition, and then brings in Miles's definition as well. So wisdom is the correct apprehension of biblical truth that results in skillful living. And so that's, I think, a good working definition. But you can define it in all sorts of ways. So maybe next week I'll have another definition. It's a cool subject, this wisdom from above. This wisdom from above we covered as way of review.

It's first or protos, it's pure, comes out from purity. And coming out from that purity is that it's peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. A really good example is of divine heavenly wisdom is our Lord himself in John chapter eight, when he, the Jewish officials, they bring out the woman in adultery, caught in the act, right? And when you, how Christ responds to that is very beautiful and full of wisdom. And his response is peaceable and gentle, and it's reasonable. And it's a merciful response. And that's all the definition of this wisdom from above, from verse 17 of James chapter three.

And you think of it, they bring this woman out and they say, we caught her in adultery, but our law tells us that she should be stoned. What should we do? And they're trying to trap them, right? They're trying to trick them or trip them up. And if it were me, I would give them a tongue lashing, right? I would just, I would call them names and I would bring, you know, Christ often called them, you know, a brood of vipers, but he didn't do that in this example with the woman in adultery.

He just knelt and he wrote in the ground, right? In the sand with his finger and And then they all started to go away. And then they were all, and he said, he said, whoever among you is without sin, let him be the first to cast the first stone at this woman. And that statement, if you think about it, it was very, think of the wisdom of that statement. who among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone. And it's so wise that we, it's used in, you know, not just biblical use, but it's used, you hear that in secular use too. A lot of people will quote that for secular purposes because it's such a wise statement that he gave there.

And then he, With the woman, he says, they're all gone. No one condemns you. And he says, neither do I. So go in peace and sin no more. And it's just a very merciful, merciful response. And that's what the wisdom is. And here's a nice quote from Darby again. Such is the beautiful portrait of divine wisdom.

It is well to note how James always desires that self-will should be silent in order that we may be capable of doing the will of God. And as partakers of divine nature of manifesting his character, the character of Christ, God manifest in the flesh. He came not to do his own well, but the will of him that sent him. He never, he ever submitted himself even to wrongs and injustice, doing good and walking in calmness and love.

And there's another calmness as part of divine wisdom. To do well, to suffer, and to take it patiently. This, says Peter, is acceptable to God. Love is free when the self is dead. That's a beautiful quote there from Darby. And then. I think I have one last quote and we'll wrap it up in this review of chapter three. Oh, but let's first go on to verse 18 here.

And he says in verse 18, and the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And Darby says about that, he says, we walk in peace, we make peace. And the fruits of righteousness in peace are sown for them that make peace. He says, this is how I understand these few words. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. It is a reproduction in the walk of man of the peace and the love of God as it is manifested in Christ down here.

So there we have it. Verse 18 and that wraps up our review of chapter 3 and I guess next week we'll go into chapter 4. And we'll get into submission in chapter four. So let me close in prayer here, and we'll wrap it up. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for these words. And James, we thank you for your son. You sent your son for the propitiation of our sins to die on the cross, that we can have our sins forgiven, and we're saved by his blood. Lord, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for Christ's sacrifice, and we just pray that you'll give us wisdom this week, this coming week. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.