SPEAKER_00: Uh we need to change the screen here.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: Turn with me, please, in God's word, to James chapter three.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we are uh continuing in our study of the book of James.
SPEAKER_00: We've come to the third chapter, and we've come to a section verses one through twelve, which we'll be spending a couple of weeks on.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're actually only going to be looking at verse one this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Verse one both stands by itself and serves as an introduction to verses two through twelve.
SPEAKER_00: Um at one level, verse one is a bit of a surprising text, a bit of an unusual text, maybe perplexing.
SPEAKER_00: And um I was actually tempted to just skip over this and move on to the rest of this section, but um we're committed to just uh just going through the word and whatever God seems to have uh next, we're trusting God's Holy Spirit that that will be appropriate for us.
SPEAKER_00: So I decided not to be so stubborn and skip over it, but to just allow God to say to us this morning, just from one simple verse, uh, that which I believe is of vital importance for us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you'll remember that James, under the inspiration of uh the Holy Spirit, was so guided and superintended in the process of writing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that he knew that this would be a book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I doubt he did, but God was involved in the process in such a remarkable way that what he wrote was precisely what God wanted to have written.
SPEAKER_00: And the message of verse 1 of chapter 3 was of practical importance to the churches to whom it was originally addressed.
SPEAKER_00: Largely Jewish churches, believers who had come to understand who their Messiah was, fulfilled Jews, messianic Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Those were the earliest believers.
SPEAKER_00: And that was the predominant group within the churches to which James was writing.
SPEAKER_00: But a word from God specifically for them and for their benefit.
SPEAKER_00: And we believe through the miracle of the inspiration of Scripture, there's also a word from God for us today, critically important and specifically to be understood as God would have it to be in our context today.
SPEAKER_00: So the essence of what I believe this verse says, to put it in a phrase that you will be happy I'm not going to sing for you, a children's song, oh be careful, little mouth.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't going to sing.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: There's a Savior up above who is looking down in love.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: This will be the first part of uh a two-part study of this uh this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Follow along in your Bible, if you would, please.
SPEAKER_00: In James chapter 3, I want to read all 12 verses.
SPEAKER_00: And then we want to look specifically this morning just at verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Not many of you should become Bible teachers, my brothers.
SPEAKER_00: He says teachers, but as we'll see in the context, he means teachers of God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: So, not many of you should become Bible teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with stricter, with greater strictness.
SPEAKER_00: For we all stumble in many ways.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body.
SPEAKER_00: If we put bits into the mouths of horses so they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the ships also.
SPEAKER_00: Though they are so large and driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
SPEAKER_00: So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts great things.
SPEAKER_00: How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.
SPEAKER_00: The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell itself.
SPEAKER_00: For every kind of beast and bird, a reptile, of sea, a creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.
SPEAKER_00: With it we bless our Lord and Father, with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: From the same mouth comes blessings and cursing.
SPEAKER_00: My brothers, these things ought not be so.
SPEAKER_00: Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water?
SPEAKER_00: Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs, neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
SPEAKER_00: Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we will be judged with a greater strictness.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: Um we have here a command.
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna walk through this.
SPEAKER_00: We have here a command.
SPEAKER_00: Um there is a command to stop doing something, and there are two warnings which explain why we should take this so seriously.
SPEAKER_00: The warnings, the warnings remind us that teachers of God's word bear a weighty responsibility and a high accountability.
SPEAKER_00: Um the the whole the whole focus is on the tongue.
SPEAKER_00: The tongue here is obviously a metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word picture, it stands for what our tongues do, it stands for our speech.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's saying, oh, be careful, little tongue, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: That applies to all of us in general, and that's what the uh verse 2 and the following are talking about, and we'll look at that the next time we look at James.
SPEAKER_00: But in this case, it is speaking specifically of those of us who study and teach God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to try to uh to unpack this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's a context in which this is given, and we would misunderstand this verse if we didn't see it in its historic context, and then with that realization seek to apply it to our situation today.
SPEAKER_00: Um he's making such a big deal about the use of the tongue, be it for a Bible teacher or for all of us?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you suppose this is really such a big deal?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if there weren't a chapter break here, and there were no chapter breaks in the original text, you would see that this is a continuation of what James has been saying before.
SPEAKER_00: This is but yet another example of what real faith looks like.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've been pursuing and will throughout this whole book an understanding of what's the difference between real faith and bogus faith.
SPEAKER_00: The real thing and just monopoly money.
SPEAKER_00: And he's made various illustrations, given various illustrations, and now the next illustration has to do with real faith.
SPEAKER_00: Real faith expresses itself by how we talk.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the only thing faith does, but boy, this is a big one.
SPEAKER_00: This is so important for James that in this book of five chapters, five different times, one in each chapter, James gives warnings and exhortations and teachings about the tongue every single time you turn around in James.
SPEAKER_00: It was a big deal for James.
SPEAKER_00: It needs to be a big deal for us as well.
SPEAKER_00: We have talked about the fact that, uh, for example, I've used the phrase several times over the months that who we are under pressure is who we are.
SPEAKER_00: And kind of getting to the point that it's not what happens in here that shows the reality of our faith, but it's how life is lived out there and in difficult times.
SPEAKER_00: So who we are under pressure is who we are.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we have a corollary to that thought this morning.
SPEAKER_00: What you are invariably will be revealed by what you say.
SPEAKER_00: The people we are finds expression, among other things, but particularly with our tongues, how we speak, and what we do with words.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the overflow of the heart, said Jesus, the mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what comes out of our mouth is a revelation of what's within our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a sobering thought.
SPEAKER_00: And it was meant to be.
SPEAKER_00: What comes out of our mouth reflects what's going on within.
SPEAKER_00: And how we use our speech is another example of a practical outworking of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so we find that a transformed and transforming heart leads to a transformed and transforming speech.
SPEAKER_00: God works deeply and truly in the heart of believers.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of what happens when we come to faith, whether we realize it or not.
SPEAKER_00: That's something that God does, He transforms us from within.
SPEAKER_00: But it's an interesting transformation.
SPEAKER_00: It's both past tense and present tense.
SPEAKER_00: We have been changed and yet we are continuing to be changed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lifelong process.
SPEAKER_00: There is, we have been transformed and we are being transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And the same way with our words and with our speech.
SPEAKER_00: Transformed and transforming hearts begin to manifest themselves by transformed and transforming speech.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect, you are not.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect, I am by no means in this regard.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about perfection.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about an ongoing life process that God works in us and that works itself out in various ways, including how we speak.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a matter of, I got saved in college and I had a potty mouth, and I learned to not speak so crudely and grossly.
SPEAKER_00: But there's more to it than that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just do we clean up our speech, it's really what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: What happens as a result of what comes out of our mouth?
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to be very clear about something.
SPEAKER_00: James is not saying that if you are called of God to teach, if you are gifted of God to be a teacher and an influencer of people with God's word, if you are led of the Holy Spirit to carry out that ministry, he's not saying don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying do it fully aware of the seriousness of that which you are doing.
SPEAKER_00: So I had somebody come up to me this morning and they said half-jokingly after the first service, well, I guess I'm freed up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be a Sunday school teacher anymore.
SPEAKER_00: That was not, and he was only kidding.
SPEAKER_00: I got worried there for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's not what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is, if you are called of the Lord, led of the Lord, gifted of the Lord, and functioning in a ministry of God's word, do it in full awareness of the incredible responsibility you have.
SPEAKER_00: And oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: James always messes with our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Examine what's going on and let the reality of our faith be shown in practical ways.
SPEAKER_00: So there is a surprising command here, and the command is really, whoa, not so many Bible teachers.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually a command, it is an imperative.
SPEAKER_00: The way it's cast in English, just by virtue of the way the English language works, uh, might mask a little bit the fact that this is an out-and-out imperative.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, don't do this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just good advice, it's not just a recommendation, he's not just saying something you think about, it is an imperative.
SPEAKER_00: And it is an imperative that is talking about something that was going on among the churches that was to stop.
SPEAKER_00: Uh without getting into all the gory details of the Greek language, you don't need to be a Greek scholar.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the point.
SPEAKER_00: But there's two kinds of imperatives, and you could over-exaggerate, how do you over-exaggerate?
SPEAKER_00: You could, uh that's a that's an exaggeration.
SPEAKER_00: You could overstate it, but one kind of imperative says, stop doing this for something that was already happening, and the other is don't start that.
SPEAKER_00: Different uh grammatical constructions.
SPEAKER_00: This is something is happening here which is to stop.
SPEAKER_00: So there was a situation in the churches in the first century, and there may be a similar situation in our day as well, where God says, Stop it.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, he's really saying, not so many Bible teachers.
SPEAKER_00: That's a bit of a strange exhortation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and as a Bible teacher, that was one of the ones that I was quite happy to skip over, but you know, I can't sneak out from under this.
SPEAKER_00: Not so many Bible teachers.
SPEAKER_00: There is a an historical context here that we really have to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it grows out of a situation in Jewish culture, Jewish culture for hundreds of years before this, the whole rabbinical movement, the early church was strongly influenced by the rabbinical practice, in which there was an unhealthy, inappropriate glut of Bible teacher wannabes.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that simple.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll try to explain it, and that's the context out of which this comes.
SPEAKER_00: So Jewish rabbis, Jewish rabbis were the teachers, the teachers of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Jewish culture, in the hundreds of years since the destruction of Solomon's temple, up until the New Testament times, and through to today in Orthodox Jewish circles, there was there is a focus and an incredibly high esteem that was given to Jewish men who had gave themselves to the study of and the teaching of Torah, of the law.
SPEAKER_00: It was a highly visible, highly valued, greatly esteemed position in society.
SPEAKER_00: Every little Jewish village, if it had a synagogue in those days, there would be rabbis.
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones that everybody turned to for advice.
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones who had become experts in God's law.
SPEAKER_00: And so every time the Jews would get together, there would be a tendency to say, a rabbi, a rabbi, rabbi, what do you have to say to us today?
SPEAKER_00: Fiddler on the roof, I've talked about this before.
SPEAKER_00: Rabbi, rabbi, rabbi, is there a blessing for the Tsar?
SPEAKER_00: And the Rabbi, hmm, a blessing for the Tsar.
SPEAKER_00: And his blessing is, God bless and keep the Tsar far away from us.
SPEAKER_00: But that just captures something about in the villages.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews in this time worked, they were in the diaspora, they were scattered all over the world.
SPEAKER_00: And these were scattered believers, now believers in their Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And there was this pattern of the rabbis.
SPEAKER_00: The rabbis were the great ones.
SPEAKER_00: They were the gifted teachers.
SPEAKER_00: They were master teachers of the word.
SPEAKER_00: They focused on Torah.
SPEAKER_00: Torah was the term for the first five books of the Bible, eventually became a term used among Jews and sometimes in Christians as well for the whole Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And so they gave themselves to the study of God's Word, and there were traditions, there were interpretations, there were writings, some passed down orally, some passed down in writing.
SPEAKER_00: So there was a whole hundreds of years of tradition of Jewish rabbis, and those traditions were maintained in the Mishnah.
SPEAKER_00: That was a collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Torah.
SPEAKER_00: And then there were rabbinic commentaries on the commentaries of the Torah, and that was the Gemerah.
SPEAKER_00: And together that formed the Talmud.
SPEAKER_00: So you had hundreds of years of Jewish men giving themselves to this precious task of trying to understand and then teach in their community God's word.
SPEAKER_00: They were highly honored.
SPEAKER_00: It was actually the highest calling to which a man could be called in that day, in that society, in that culture.
SPEAKER_00: The highest calling.
SPEAKER_00: Someone might be a carpenter or a butcher, but in his spare time, and normally this was not paid, but would be someone who had specialized in an understanding of the teachings of the elders and of the Mishnah and the Gemrah and the whole Jewish rabbinical tradition.
SPEAKER_00: This was an impressive and an important role.
SPEAKER_00: The rabbi became the role model for young men in Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_00: Young boys would grow up with the aspiration of maybe I could one day be not the goalie for the fighting Sioux.
SPEAKER_00: But a rabbi! What better could I do?
SPEAKER_00: So you just have to understand, these were celebrities in that small culture, in these small villages, highly esteemed, highly valued, highly sought after.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the situation when we're talking about teachers, that's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And this was true in the largely Jewish churches to whom James was speaking.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it was into this context of the rabbinical tradition among the Jews that Christianity was born.
SPEAKER_00: Christ came, and he was called, one of the first titles given to him was rabbi.
SPEAKER_00: And that whole tradition was part of the early church in a way that it is actually not so much in our circles today.
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter is that Jesus appeared as a master teacher.
SPEAKER_00: He did other things, he healed, he raised people from the dead, he died on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The believers believed that he was raised from the dead, and P.S.
SPEAKER_00: He was.
SPEAKER_00: But he came primarily in the minds of the people as a rabbi, as a teacher, and the crowds flocked to him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened to rabbis.
SPEAKER_00: People flocked to them.
SPEAKER_00: On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given, and what happened?
SPEAKER_00: Well, among the early followers of Jesus, people like Peter and James and John, they stood up and they started speaking.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone noticed that they were uneducated.
SPEAKER_00: They had never gone to seminary, they had no degrees, they'd just been with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this verbal communication of God's word has been at the core of the church from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: As the church developed and people were sent out, beginning of the first missionary journey, the church got together and the people they sent out were men of the word.
SPEAKER_00: They had prophetic and teaching gifts, word gifts.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when you look at the different places in the New Testament where spiritual gifts are explained and spelled out, in every one of the four major passages, word gifts are in the highest tier of gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Word gifts, prophecy, teaching, exhortation, interpretation, among the highest tier of gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And that reflects the central importance of the Word of God and the teaching of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, God gave to the church gifted men, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor teachers.
SPEAKER_00: All four of those are men who are gifted in use of the word.
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is a central reality of the church and was intended to be that way as well.
SPEAKER_00: There just never seemed to be enough of the right kind of gifted, godly, rightly motivated, spiritual Bible teachers, and there never seems to be any shortage of the wrong kind of Bible teachers.
SPEAKER_00: That was true then, that's true now.
SPEAKER_00: That's what James is, that's the background that this comes out.
SPEAKER_00: And if James had his way, which actually in this context, if we're following what he says, means if God had his way in our midst, according to James, it would be better if there were fewer rather than more.
SPEAKER_00: The right kind, more of the right kind and less of the wrong kind.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's an important thought for us to meditate on.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a warning.
SPEAKER_00: There is a reality that the one who stands and has the responsibility, the weighty responsibility of opening God's word and saying, to the best of my understanding, this is what God says.
SPEAKER_00: To the best of my understanding, this is what I believe God means by what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: And to the best of my understanding, I think you need to think about these kinds of things in terms of your own life.
SPEAKER_00: For the person who does that, this verse is critically important.
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter is that not all good Bible teachers are good Bible teachers.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't then and they aren't now.
SPEAKER_00: That's just a fact.
SPEAKER_00: Not everybody who we would look at as a good teacher of God's Word is truly a good teacher of God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to show some examples from the New Testament itself to give some illustration.
SPEAKER_00: So turn, if you will, just briefly back to Galatians chapter 1, verse 6, where Paul makes it very clear that there are false teachers in the church.
SPEAKER_00: There were false teachers in the New Testament church.
SPEAKER_00: There have been false teachers throughout the history of the Christian church.
SPEAKER_00: There are false teachers in the church in America today.
SPEAKER_00: There are false teachers on the radio.
SPEAKER_00: There's false teachers on television.
SPEAKER_00: There's false teachers standing in pulpits around.
SPEAKER_00: And this is just a reality.
SPEAKER_00: So look at what Paul says about this in Galatians 1, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: He says to the believers in a local church, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who stand in pulpits and are on the internet and on our television and are all around us who are false teachers.
SPEAKER_00: They want to distort the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: And then Paul goes even further, and he said, if we or even an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is big stuff.
SPEAKER_00: There are false teachers out there.
SPEAKER_00: And be careful, little mouth, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful what you say.
SPEAKER_00: Not only are there false teachers, there are incompetent teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Just because someone can teach doesn't mean they know what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed that?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy 1, 7.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 6, Paul is saying to Timothy, certain persons, by swerving from the certain things, the good things that he had talked about before, have wandered away into vain discussion.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
SPEAKER_00: You hear what it says?
SPEAKER_00: Teachers of God's word who don't know what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't even realize they don't know what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have understanding of what they're saying or the things that they so easily pontificate on.
SPEAKER_00: Now these this is this is what was going on in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: We have no reason to believe it's not going on today.
SPEAKER_00: Teachers who have impure motives.
SPEAKER_00: Titus chapter 1, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: You can begin with verse 10 of Titus chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially of the circumcision party, a theological movement in his church, in the church of that day.
SPEAKER_00: They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the motive with which, and Paul is judging their motives.
SPEAKER_00: And they're saying they are doing this with wrong motives, impure motives.
SPEAKER_00: There were people with impure motives in the ministry in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: There are people in the ministry with impure motives today.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a warning against that.
SPEAKER_00: There were teachers who were intentionally sly and intentionally deceptive.
SPEAKER_00: That's yet another level.
SPEAKER_00: So 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter, what did I put up there?
SPEAKER_00: 2.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter chapter 2, verses 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's saying, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.
SPEAKER_00: There will be false teachers among us.
SPEAKER_00: No reason not to assume that is still true.
SPEAKER_00: Who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction, and many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words.
SPEAKER_00: So there's all kinds of warnings.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the kind of thing that he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on, and he says that the quality of their teaching will be judged.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just briefly touch on this.
SPEAKER_00: The word judge is a difficult word when we come across it in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: It usually has one of two meanings.
SPEAKER_00: It can either mean to condemn, or it can mean to evaluate.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same, the exact same word used in different contexts.
SPEAKER_00: So it can mean a condemnation of a person, a judgment like that, or it can mean an evaluation of the worth of something.
SPEAKER_00: And those are not exactly the same.
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter, and we don't have time to go into this, we'll perhaps Lord willing do that another day.
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter is that non-believers will be judged.
SPEAKER_00: They will be condemned.
SPEAKER_00: Those are heaven and hell issues.
SPEAKER_00: There is a great white throne judgment that is coming.
SPEAKER_00: We don't talk much about it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We don't put it in those terms.
SPEAKER_00: Those are impolite, those are intolerant, those are not politically correct terms, but there is a coming judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And the unbelievers will be judged, and the consequences are heaven and hell issues.
SPEAKER_00: For believers, we have been judged, or to say it better, the judgment which we deserve has been placed upon Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So there, Romans 8.1, so there is now, therefore, no condemnation more.
SPEAKER_00: There's no longer condemnation for us as believers.
SPEAKER_00: That condemnation has been poured out on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But there is an evaluation.
SPEAKER_00: What we see in a couple of passages, I'm not going to turn there, but there is an evaluation of our works, whether it's hay, wheat and stubble or precious and lasting.
SPEAKER_00: So there is coming for all of us a time we will stand before God, and as believers, if you are a believer, you will not be condemned to hell, but there is an evaluation that has consequences in the future, and the way it's portrayed in the New Testament is having missed rewards and benefits in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of things we could say about that that you would otherwise have received.
SPEAKER_00: So it's an important matter.
SPEAKER_00: So when he says that Bible teachers will be judged, it could be a condemnation, depending upon how what the state of their heart is, or it simply could be a very severe evaluation.
SPEAKER_00: So that's really what this verse is saying.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of simple thoughts by way of personal application.
SPEAKER_00: The first and primary application, oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: The first and primary application applies to me and anyone who does what I do here.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'd like to skip this.
SPEAKER_00: They used to call this not a plexiglas a plexiglass podium.
SPEAKER_00: It used to be called a sacred desk.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not in our evangelical terms, but go back to the Puritans and uh and the the pulpit was this big wraparound affair.
SPEAKER_00: Um but it was seen as a sacred task to stand here, a sacred desk, a weighty responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: And those who are called to stand and open God's word and say uh to the best of my ability, this, my friends, I believe, is what God is saying.
SPEAKER_00: This, my friends, I believe, is what God means by what he says, and this, my friends, is something that I think you need to give serious thought to, even as I do.
SPEAKER_00: That is a weighty and awesome responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: And I just need to tell you, I do not take that lightly.
SPEAKER_00: I do not take that lightly.
SPEAKER_00: I am keenly and personally aware of the risk that I put myself in by standing in this place and doing the things that I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't allow myself to take shortcuts in preparation.
SPEAKER_00: For me to bring a message from God's Word, I normally it will take me 20 to 30 hours to prepare it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go back to the original line, won't bore you with the details.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not a casual matter.
SPEAKER_00: I don't just stand up and wing it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't just think Saturday night, okay, what am I going to say tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: Let me go quick write something down.
SPEAKER_00: I take it, and maybe I'm obsessive-compulsive.
SPEAKER_00: That's quite possible.
SPEAKER_00: Um maybe I'm both obsessive-compulsive and keenly aware of the fact that this is no game we're playing.
SPEAKER_00: This is life and death stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And every once in a while, some of you actually listen.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you actually take it to heart again.
SPEAKER_00: And that both brings me great joy and brings a measure of sobriety, if not fear, to me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Walt, be careful, little mouth, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: I don't download sermons from the internet.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I don't tell you what I think you want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: You probably have noticed that.
SPEAKER_00: I really don't, I mean, please, friends, I I love you, but I really don't care what you want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the issue when we're opening God's word.
SPEAKER_00: The issue is what is God saying to you?
SPEAKER_00: And that may not be the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't try to be harsh, but I am keenly aware of the fact that my job is to say to the best of my ability what God is saying and to challenge you to respond accordingly.
SPEAKER_00: I will not just teach Bible facts as though knowing the content of the Bible is sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is not given to us as a textbook of theology, it's given to us as a revelation of God which is designed to transform the way we live.
SPEAKER_00: If we approach it in any other way in the church, then we are doing ourselves and God a great disservice.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there is a place for the academic study of God's word, and I believe in theological seminaries.
SPEAKER_00: I believe in a full theological education.
SPEAKER_00: I have the privilege of having had what in the day was perhaps the best theological education in America at the time.
SPEAKER_00: But theological education does not make a godly man or a godly communicator of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't happen that way.
SPEAKER_00: You can get skills, you can gain knowledge, but that doesn't make for effective ministry.
SPEAKER_00: There's other dimensions that go into it.
SPEAKER_00: And I will not exhort you to do something that I am not seeking to do myself.
SPEAKER_00: I preach first and foremost to myself, and I hate that.
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather preach to you.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm keenly aware of how short I fall in so many areas.
SPEAKER_00: But I just want you to know that the first and foremost application of this goes to me and anyone else who has, I'm tempted to say the audacity to say, God says this, do it.
SPEAKER_00: If it's if if we do our job rightly, it's not audacity.
SPEAKER_00: There is a humble fact that God has spoken, He's spoken to me, and He's speaking to you, and maybe I can help you along the way.
SPEAKER_00: When that isn't there, oh be careful, little mouth, what you say.
SPEAKER_00: There is a strict judgment coming for me.
SPEAKER_00: And I take that very seriously.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, I do believe this has broader application of anyone who has spiritual influence over another person.
SPEAKER_00: But that gets us into the rest of the passage that we'll look at next time.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close off by talking with you just a little bit about what I believe these thoughts have to say to us today in the important situation that we find ourselves in as we are going through the process of selecting the next senior pastor here.
SPEAKER_00: I did not select this passage for this day.
SPEAKER_00: God apparently selected that a long time ago, but we just had a pastoral search team there.
SPEAKER_00: We're beginning today a process of saying, Lord, who is the person that you have for us?
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give some thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: My understanding of how this passage may apply to that, and I want to give some loving words to us as a congregation.
SPEAKER_00: Not all good Bible teachers are really good Bible teachers.
SPEAKER_00: Not all pastors are really good pastors.
SPEAKER_00: It is not primarily a matter of skill, it is not primarily a matter of experience, it is not primarily a matter of knowledge, it is first and foremost a matter of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the heart we speak.
SPEAKER_00: And you can have all the training in the world, and you can fail miserably in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: You can have 60 years of experience, and it can be 60 years of disastrous impact.
SPEAKER_00: You can have all of the knowledge, know all the Bible content.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what we need.
SPEAKER_00: Now we need experience.
SPEAKER_00: We need people who know the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We need people.
SPEAKER_00: Those are not bad things, but those alone will not make for a successful pastor of this church.
SPEAKER_00: We have to pay attention to those, but we have to go far deeper than that.
SPEAKER_00: There is a real danger now that we will look and grab someone who seems right to us that may not truly be right to us, and that will then come out in the succeeding years.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the way it works.
SPEAKER_00: You won't know until a year or two into it precisely who you've got.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not because the five people up here did a lousy job.
SPEAKER_00: It's because it has to do primarily not with knowledge, not with experience, not with skills, but it has to do with a Godward heart.
SPEAKER_00: A heart that is moving Godward.
SPEAKER_00: And out of that heart, out of the heart, the mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_00: If we do it right, there will be great blessing.
SPEAKER_00: If we do it wrong, we will pay a high price.
SPEAKER_00: We will pay a high actual price, a financial price.
SPEAKER_00: Part of my role as coach to the elders is to give some guidance to the pastoral search committee, and I was looking through some materials and I found two different sources that were talking about what the economic cost of choosing the wrong man is.
SPEAKER_00: And it's astronomical, actually.
SPEAKER_00: Even for a very modest salary, uh the cost would, if you factor everything, it would be probably$100,000 at the minimum.
SPEAKER_00: Some would estimate under up to four or five hundred thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_00: When you really think of what is spent, not just in getting the guy here, but um all that takes place only to discover that this is not the right man, and then you go through the whole process again.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not really concerned about the money.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking more of what the cost is for us as a church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the setback that that is for us, our reputation in the community, not our reputation, but the reputation of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The discouragement and disillusionment of, oh, here we go again, kind of a thing.
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm saying is the real issues are not going to be seen on resumes or heard in sermons.
SPEAKER_00: The real issues are the issues of the heart of the man who comes.
SPEAKER_00: And that is not so easy to discern, at least for us.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is we need, the men and women who were standing up here, they need an extraordinary measure of godly discernment and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they need.
SPEAKER_00: I'll help them figure out how to get in touch with and get their resumes and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But what they need, I will not make this decision.
SPEAKER_00: You will ultimately make it, they will prepare the way.
SPEAKER_00: But what is needed is more than resumes and skills.
SPEAKER_00: What is needed is a godly heart, a heart that's moving Godward.
SPEAKER_00: And there is no foolproof way of discerning that.
SPEAKER_00: I barely even know my own heart.
SPEAKER_00: You hardly even know your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: So we look into other people's hearts, and it's a tough process.
SPEAKER_00: But it is not a tough process for God.
SPEAKER_00: The most important things that we need are not going to be visible to us.
SPEAKER_00: Which makes me say that we need to pray for godly insight and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Huge difference between knowledge and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you want knowledge, go to college.
SPEAKER_00: If you want wisdom, go to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple.
SPEAKER_00: So, my dear friends, we need to go to God with these matters.
SPEAKER_00: This is a heavy and weighty issue.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just heavy for those who are up there, it's heavy for us.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: God knows the heart.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the difference between a Saul and a David.
SPEAKER_00: It says about Saul, he was a handsome young man who was, there was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome, more impressive than he.
SPEAKER_00: From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any other.
SPEAKER_00: I take comfort in that as a little guy.
SPEAKER_00: But the point is, God sees things on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel 16, 7 says, the Lord does not look at the things the man looks at.
SPEAKER_00: Man looks at the outward appearance in training and experience and resumes and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_00: But God looks at the heart.
SPEAKER_00: So God saw David and he was a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: He was not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: You will never get a perfect pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Don't look for a perfect pastor.
SPEAKER_00: You'll only, if you only take a perfect pastor, then you'll take a liar.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: But choose a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want to say to you is that prayer for godly wisdom, real, consistent, persevering, ongoing prayer over the coming months is precisely what we need to give ourselves to.
SPEAKER_00: What I really want to say is, oh, be careful, little church, whom you seek.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, be careful, little church, whom you seek.
SPEAKER_00: There's a Savior up above who is looking down with love.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, be careful, little church, whom you seek.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, today is Sunday, April 10th, 2016, and God is still on the throne, and he can be trusted.
SPEAKER_00: He cares more about this stuff than you do.
SPEAKER_00: And he can be trusted.
SPEAKER_00: And let's pray, and let's just let's make this a spiritual journey.
SPEAKER_00: And let's beseech God.
SPEAKER_00: What we need is not an impressive person.
SPEAKER_00: What we need is a man after God's own heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's a character, it's an internal issue.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really hard to judge.
SPEAKER_00: But God is in control and we trust Him.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand with me for the benediction, please?
SPEAKER_00: Now, my friends in this wonderful little church, go into the world in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Have courage, hold on to what is good and honor all men.
SPEAKER_00: Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the suffering, comfort the grieving, restore the wandering, and share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Love and serve the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And may the grace and the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon us all.
SPEAKER_00: God bless and amen.