Adoption to the Glory of God on ESPN

James 3: A Story

From the 2008 Desiring God Conference, October 7, 2008.

Our Words Matter: Vignettes on The Tongue

James 1:26 "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless."
Paul Tripp
Paul Tripp: For Those Who Have Been Hurt by Words
Paul Tripp on the Importance of Speaking the Bible
Paul Tripp on Speaking the Truth in Love
Paul Tripp on the Need for Silence
Paul Tripp on How Sin Affects the Transparent Use of Words
Paul Tripp on the Life and Death Power of Words
Paul Tripp on Owning Our Words
Paul Tripp: What Makes Bad Language Bad?
Paul Tripp on God's Role in the Words We Speak
Paul Tripp: Does God Care About Every Word We Speak?
Paul Tripp: What is the War of Words?

Sinclair Ferguson
Sinclair Ferguson on How the Heart Affects Words
Sinclair Ferguson on Acceptable Speech
Sinclair Ferguson on Being Judged for Our Words

Mark Driscoll
Mark Driscoll on Speaking the Truth in Love
Mark Driscoll on the Life and Death Power of Words
Mark Driscoll on Using Words to Arrest Attention
Mark Driscoll on the Bible's Use of Harsh Language

Lesson Six, Part 1: Genuine Faith, according to Paul, John, Matthew, and James

Cross-references to Question #2 for tomorrow night's lesson

Paul: Galatians 5:6b

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
The kind of faith that "counts" as genuine saving faith is the faith that is shown in and through our love toward others.

1 John 3:10, 17-19

10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the
devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is
anyone who does not love his brother.

17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence.

The crucial piece of evidence that we "belong to the truth" and are children of
God is by giving to those in need, doing what is right, and loving our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Matthew 7:15-23

A Tree and Its Fruit
15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Jesus tells us that there must be a direct link between faith and deeds. We should look at the fruit of those who say they love Christ to see whether there is fruit. Do they do what the Word says? Do they love the church? Do they have a heart for the poor?

James 1:27, 2:14-17

27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress and
to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Faith and Deeds
14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James, Matthew, Jesus, John and Paul all show agreement, along with the Westminster Confession of Faith:

Chapter XI Of Justification
II. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is
the alone instrument of justification:[4] yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by
love.[5]

Lesson Five, Part 2: The Royal Law

James 2: 8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your
neighbor as yourself,"you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin
and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law
and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he
who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not
commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that
gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has
not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

The Royal Law
To love our neighbors as ourselves. When we break this law, we break the heart of the law of God toward others. If we show favoritism to the powerful or wealthy, we are sinning against the very heart of God.

Study Guide note (page 57)
"Christ's law offers us the power to obey it, so it frees us from guaranteed condemnation ( Romans 8:1-13). When we stand before Christ's judgment seat, we cannot plead that we are unable to obey the royal law. By commiting ourselves to Christ we freely pledge to obey Him, so we cannot claim that His law is a harsh burden imposed on us. Our freedom as God's children and friends means more responsibility than when we were slaves to sin.

Law and grace are not contradictory. God gave Israel the Ten Commandments after He graciously liberated the people from slavery in Egypt. The laws were a gift to show how the redeemed should live. Likewise, after God frees us by grace from slavery to sin and death, He gives us commandments by which we may live our lives in true freedom. If we ignore these laws, eventually we will fall back into slavery to sin.

Illustration
In March 2007, Muskegon, Michigan residents Christine Bouwkamp and Kyle Kramer got married. The ceremony was traditional, but their reception was something else. Instead of hosting a formal reception, the couple took the money they would have spent on a reception for 150 wedding guests and bought 5,000 pounds of food. Then they put their 150 guests to work and had them unload the food from a truck to help feed 120 neighborhood families.

"We decided the first thing we wanted to do as husband and wife is to serve others," said Christine. "We thought about not just feeding our guests, but also the neighborhood."
Immediately after they exchanged their vows, Bouwkamp and Kramer put on aprons marked "Bride" and "Groom" and worked with their guests.

The couple met a year earlier while working on a committee for a ministry that conducts outreach to the neighborhood. Christine was a single mother of two daughters. Kyle had battled drug addiction and graduated from the Muskegon Rescue Mission's discipleship program.

"Both of their lives have radically changed," said Pastor Gary Sherwood. "People who haven't seen them for a while will recognize them by the way they look on the outside, but they won't recognize them on the inside."

When asked about the charitable act, the happy couple simply said they wanted to "bless God for blessing us with each other."
(reference: Devotional Email by Peter Kennedy)


Meditation and Application
Why is it personally important to you that "mercy triumphs over judgment" (verse 2:13)?
How can we begin this week to take the truth of James 2:1-13 to heart and put it into practice?

When we are demonstating love toward others, people see the glory of the Jesus Christ. Today in prayer, praise the Lord for His love towards you and love others.

Lesson Five, Part 1: No Favorites

Favoritism Forbidden

James 2:1 My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't
show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and
fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3 If you show
special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat
for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my
feet," 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil
thoughts?

5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor
in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he
promised those who love him? 6 But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich
who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?
7 Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you
belong?

Illustration:
The story is told of a church meeting at which a wealthy man rose to tell the congregation about his faith. As he stood, most in the congregation took notice, due to his elegant suit, trendy and crisp hairstyle, and well polished mannerisms.

“I'm a millionaire,” he said. “And I attribute my wealth to the blessings of God in my life.” Everyone was enraptured to hear what he might have to say.

He went on to recall the turning point of his faith. As a young man, he had just earned his first dollar and was eagerly thinking of all the possibilities when he happened upon a church meeting. He found himself consumed by the message he heard that night, and felt compelled to give it all to God at the offering. He said that he knew that night he would either have to give it all to God or nothing at all.

At that moment, he decided to give everything he had earned that day as a young boy to God . Looking back, he said, he now knew that God has always blessed this decision and today made him a successful man. When he finished his story an awed silence filled the entire room.

As he returned to his seat, an elderly, immigrant woman wearing shabby clothes and speaking broken English placed her offering in the plate, leaned over to him, handed him the plate, and said: “I dare you to do it again.”

Meditation and Application
What might lead us to treat rich people better than poor ones?
What is wrong with the motives you uncovered?
Pray that God would convict us to to repentance for wrong motives and change us to become more obedient to His Word.

PB's 7 practical steps for avoiding temptation

(from my notes on Pastor Betters' sermon series - '4 weeks with God and my neighbor')

1- Commit to memorizing scripture that applies to your situation - it's a spiritual battle!

2- When first tempted, spend time in prayer thanking God for the opportunity to address the sin. Rehearse scripture you have memorized.

3- Reckon yourself dead to sin and set your mind on things above - Colossians 3.

4 - Display your "think and do" list. (Phil. 4:8) (Eph. 4:30-34)

5 - If you are still in the throws of temptation, contact your accountability partner and ask them to pray with you. Ask the church to pray for you.

6- Think Great Commission and be ready to share the Good News of the Gospel with someone. Know the Gospel message - pray to believe it.

7- Before you retire at the end of the evening, do an inventory of your day -- How did I do? What I need to do tomorrow? Commit to that night and the next day to God - Greater is God in Heaven than our sin or the evil one.

Current Sermon Series on James

How Convenient! One of my favorite theologians, Dr. Kim Riddlebarger, has just started a series on James. I'm planning to follow his teaching and will be posting links to each week's sermon audio files on this page as we go forward (assuming, of course, that the women like using the blog). So be sure to check back!

James 1:19-27 "Be Doers, Not Just Hearers, of God's Word">>>

James 1:1-18 "Ask in Faith">>>

James 2:1-13 "Transgressor of the Law">>>

James 2:14-26 "Faith Apart from Works is Dead">>>

Our Mercy Matter

This coming Wednesday (Sept. 17th) we will discuss and choose a Mercy Matter project for our group.
Carolyn, Erin, Donna, Judy, Peggy and Deb are going to be looking into a few of the options we discussed this past week. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to email us. Come prepared with specifics on what we can do to help with that Mercy Matter.

Orphans in America

Dr. Anthony Bradley:

"America has nearly 115,000 orphaned kids in foster care waiting to be adopted. Some wonder how this is possible in a country with Christian families. Surely, there are 115,000 missional families in America, right? Missional families, for example, embrace the redemptive mission of God and practice "true religion" in their local communities (James 1:27)."

Read the rest of his post and feel free to submit your comments for discussion here.