 Good morning everyone welcome to the session on the book of James. We will pray and get into our chapters for the day. I want to request somebody from class to please go ahead and lead in prayer. Anyone can do that please. Can I pray? Yes, Elijah. I really pray that once again we are most grateful and thankful to you for the grace and the message that you have shown to us this day. Father we are committing our class once again into your mighty hands to God that we pray that you come and lead this course come and guide us holy spirit teachers holy spirit grant us understanding open our hearts and open our minds to receive in the mighty name of Jesus. We pray you commit our pastor into your hands also that they continue to guide here in your utterances in the name of Jesus. We thank you and we bless your holy name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you Elijah. So we've now come to James chapter 3 and that is the chapter that we are going to be studying. We started talking about the power of the tongue. So let me just go back there. I think we only read through it, but then we didn't really go ahead and understand it. So how about we start with James chapter 3 and verse 2. If someone can please read from verse 2 to verse 6 then I'll go ahead and explain that. So we're in James 3 and we are going to read verses 2 to 6. James chapter 3 verse 2 to 6. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble to work his perfect name able also to riddle the whole body. Indeed we put bits and horses now so they may obey us and return their whole body. Sorry. Look also how good they are so large and driven by fierce winds. They're turned by a very small rudder where the hollows desire. Even so the tongue is a little monger at most great plants. See how great a forest, a little fire and kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of inequity. The tongue is so set among members that defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire by him. Yes, thank you Asha. So a pertinent message about the tongue which is comparatively smaller muscle right on the body if you look at other muscles but something incredibly powerful about the tongue and that's what James is speaking about. Now why is he talking about earlier he said trials when you end your trials you know count it all joy and now he's talking about the part of the tongue. He will also talk about inequality among believers. So in a sense it is demystifying for us the idea of a perfect early church because when we read the book of hearts somewhere we get this image that there was nothing wrong with the early church. They were all like angels. Holy Spirit was poured out on them. They were doing all the right things. Well yes because the Holy Spirit was poured out and they were being you know led by the power of the Spirit many things shifted for the early church and they were in a time of revival, signs, wonders, miracles all that were taking place. However when it came to the character or let's say becoming like Jesus aspect of believers there were issues. Now we know that James was the leader of the church during these times so he's having to address these matters to the believers. They were not perfect and I'm sure the reason why he's talking about the tongue here is because people were not taming their tongues and there must have been many things said spoken that were hurtful and causing division among the people and so he had to address this issue and say that we as believers must manage our members well because self-control is the fruit of the Spirit and if we are really walking with the Lord then being able to manage the words we speak it becomes very very important. Okay so from verse 3 he's giving examples of bits in horses mouths that can turn the whole body of the horse and we are aware of this how you know people control horses. Then he also talks about ships and he talks about the very small rudder of the ship which the pilot or the navigator controls such that the ship moves in a certain direction. So now keeping these two things in mind he speaks about the tongue in our body and he says look even the tongue like the bit like the rudder it's a very small part of our body but you see that it has the power of great impact so the direction of the horse or the direction of the ship are determined by those small parts that we just now refer to. Similarly the direction of our life is dependent on the way we use our tongue he gives one more analogy here and that is of a little fire a little fire now we are aware of legions in the world that have burned for months that have burned for you know I don't know even up to a year maybe without being able to control the forest fires and how did that whole devastation begin with a small spark of flame. So he is talking about the tongue like that flame of fire if you just park it it can even cause a forest fire so this is in the negative context first we said the tongue can provide direction for one's life which is a positive thing now the tongue can also cause havoc like fire now that's a negative thing so now he goes on to saying verse six he says tongue is a fire a world of iniquity the tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire by hell so now in the negative context because maybe he's addressing some of the problems in the speaking of believers so he's saying when we speak negative when we speak or let me not just say generally negative things which are not aligned to the word of God then what happens the tongue becomes that powerful part that defiles the entire body when not aligned to the word of God so in that context he's saying it now yes he has put it in this way and he says in the Good News Bible it says it sets on fire the entire course of our existence with the fire that comes to it from hell itself so when we are not aligned to the word many things go wrong so that's that's the indication here but if we were to consider the flip side of it because James is bringing a message of warning and that's why he's talking like this but if we turn it around when the tongue is not aligned to the word it's like you know a fire that comes from hell itself but what if the tongue is aligned to the word of God then what can happen you see it can affect our whole body it can affect our whole body to bring blessing it can affect our lives to bring blessing it can affect the lives of others to bring blessing so both are a possibility okay so the negative we have seen but then the positive is also a possibility and so we as believers have to make a choice as far as our tongue is concerned and decide how we want to use it now coming to the taming of the tongue that's the next section here could somebody please read from verse 7 through 12 chapter 3 verses 7 through 12 please for every kind of ghost and ghost of the child and creatures of the sea has stained and has decayed by mankind a new man can take the doubt it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison you could read through 12 asha sir pastor with it we bless our god and father and with it we curse men who have been made in this same multitude of god out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing my brethren please think out not to be so does the spring send forth fresh water and better from the same opening can affect tree my brethren their wings or grip point their face does no spring yields both salt water and fresh thank you thank you asha so here he talks about the importance of taming the tongue and look at the analogy that he gives he says every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind it's amazing even today as we consider you know places where animals are kept we can see how man has trained them we can see how he gives instruction and these huge creatures maybe water creatures or even you know you see lions in in a circus they listen and they follow instructions and it's incredible that even beasts wild beasts can be tamed but in comparison james is saying but no man can tame the tongue wow that that is something that even wild beasts can be trained but the tongue is much more difficult to train comparatively and he goes on to saying it's unruly evil full of deadly poison so when that is untamed or when words come out of the tongue which are not aligned to the thoughts of god the mind of god so we could even say it's out of control right now because it's not aligned to what god wants and his purpose is then what what is the nature right of of the tongue the tongue is uncontrolled unrestrainable and it's like you know a restless evil because all kinds of words come out of it that can hurt that can destroy that can you know cause division that can that can cause maybe even unrepairable damage right and that is why he's saying that out of control tongue is he uses the terms deadly poison okay deadly poison what does deadly poison do deadly poison kills it destroys and that's the same thing you know that can happen with the tongue now you know people people say that stick sense the stones break the bones but then you know you can you can actually speak any words and it should be fine like even children when we are nurturing them we are instructing them in the ways of the lord but sometimes you know the hurt that a stick brings can heal faster than the hurt that the words bring so the tongue is that powerful and James is warning the believers about the power of the tongue and be very careful not to have an uncontrolled tongue or a tongue which is not aligned to the word of god the purposes of god and then another thing he says he's he's saying this is an irony that the so-called believers the same tongue they speak blessing and with the same tongue what do they do they curse people so he's just asking them this question how is it that this whole double you know not a double life but just you sort of have this unsettled in your mind where the tongue can be used to bless god the father god and the father and it can be used to curse men you're doing both things at the same time with the same tongue and he says that should not be the case and you know a good example for us to understand is how our language changes particularly on Sundays or maybe on Saturday if you have some meeting or prayer going on we we are very comfortable with so-called Christian language that we are used to speaking but does that kind of pleasant uplifting blessed language continue as we step out of these meetings let's say we are on the road and we are in traffic or we are shopping we are with our own families that's another test at another level but how is it that believers can have one way of speech in certain settings and a completely different way of speech in another setting so these are the challenges and James is helping the believer know but let's have consistency let not and and you know he says things like blessing and cursing from the same tongue he says fresh water and bitter from the same spring opening and he also says you know can a fig tree bear olives or grapevine bear figs so he's saying let's not mix the two blessing or cursing choose and the choice is obvious we as believers we have to choose blessing because that's why our tongues have been created so that's the way in which he's addressing this this matter of using words and the power of words and about words there's so much that we can study in the particularly in the book of Proverbs that words are so powerful words can even direct our lives so that's about the tongue please feel free to pause and you know ask any question if at all you need clarification anything to talk about or can we go ahead anything about the tongue okay I think it's quite obvious because we've all experienced the impact and the effects of the tongue our entire lives so you know we understand let's move on we go to the next section here this is about wisdom so as we can see teams are shifting when you know James is talking yes Christopher yes first I just wanted to just sort of make a point here where you know I mean one of the gifts of the spirit is you know you know speaking in tongues and you know also interpretation of tongues so that seems to be a complete sort of you know the pendulum seems to be a moved towards a gift and so I mean as human beings we have we have the tongue which is is obviously you know can can produce a lot of evil but there's also this gift which which is there so but that is only I think you know utilized you know when we bring in in our prayer to God so I just wanted to you know sort of make that point and you know if you have any comment on that no I agree with you Christopher you know that's a gift that God has given us and we can use our tongues for speaking in tongues which is of course a blessing we're able to come in with God we're able to edify ourselves and bring a message to others to edify them as well so yeah I agree with you thank you yes thank you thank you so much for bringing that up so let's now go to the next part here we'll read from verse 13 to verse 18 who is wise in understanding among you let them show it by their good life by deeds done in in the humility that comes from wisdom but if you have a bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast about it or deny the truth such wisdom does not come from heaven but it's earthly unspiritual demonic please go until 18 Christopher can't hear you anymore for where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder and every evil practice but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure and peace loving considerate submissive full of mercy and good fruit impartial and sincere and sincere peacemakers whose soul in peace we per harvest of righteousness thank you thank you so much Christopher so here James is asking the question who is wise and understanding among you in other words how does wisdom and understanding get demonstrated out of one's life so let's say somebody has wisdom somebody has understanding how would we know through their life when their life has good conduct or if simply put we would say good behavior right then we can say that yes this individual is walking with wisdom and understanding and he also adds that he says works are done in the meekness of wisdom so the person is doing what they are doing through wisdom and he adds meekness of wisdom something to be understood when we say wisdom humility is attached to wisdom okay so that's the beauty of this he says meekness of wisdom so wisdom is not independent of humility so the person who is said to have wisdom understanding has good conduct good behavior associated with good works which are done in humility so that's what he's saying let's move on then he says but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts do not boast and lie against the truth he goes on this wisdom does not descend from above but is earthly sensual demonic for where envy and self-seeking exist confusion and every evil thing are there so now in contrast in contrast we saw somebody with wisdom good behavior in contrast if people operate in he also uses the term bitter envy bitter envy is it's an extreme sort of level of jealousy it's an extreme level of jealousy now if that is the motivator of what one is doing now let's add to that he also states something like self-seeking self-seeking now if a person is motivated by extreme jealousy and selfishness what do you think will come out of there you know we cannot expect anything good to come out of that because um there there will be quarrels there will be strife there will be manipulation there will be all kinds of evil we can just keep listing things out and that is the danger which he's warning us about he's saying there are matters in life which we can try to solve either motivated by godly wisdom or our own thought process you know self-seeking selfish way of looking at things um having jealousy uh against others and trying to make something happen so things can be resolved in a godly way or in an ungodly way but when we pick the ungodly way you know he is saying it is earthly it is sensual it is demonic earthly is it's not accompanying god's wisdom sensual is it's about our own pleasures it's about our own gratification demonic is it is influenced by the uh paths of darkness so this kind of wisdom or you know earthly wisdom which is uh opposing godly wisdom is not going to produce anything good and he goes on in verse 16 he says when there is envy and self-seeking these are the motivators what can we expect you know people try to solve problems but then problems get created there will be confusion and every evil thing are there so we must be warned against uh you know this kind of motivation and the behavior that comes out of it so stay out of it it's very simple if if we go back to the writings of paul he talks about the fruit of the spirit he talks about uh uh you know uh staying away from the fruit of the flesh so these are all included in the fruit of the flesh and one needs to be careful about that but in verse 17 comes back to speaking about wisdom godly wisdom earlier he said good behavior will come out of it he said that wisdom is tied with humility now in 17 he gives more features of godly wisdom and what are some of the terms he uses he says it is first pure then peaceable gentle willing to yield full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy so these are the features of godly wisdom what does it mean pure so whenever we are trying to solve a problem and we think that we have applied wisdom we can ask ourselves these questions uh is the way I have worked things out pure is it peaceable is it gentle uh is it you know willing to yield to let's say god is prompting us at that moment are we willing to accept the new idea that god is bringing away so in this manner we can test it out whether our wisdom is really a heavenly wisdom so the features I'll just explain it to us pure is obviously not having any evil in it not having any works of the flesh in it peaceable is being done in such a way that it doesn't produce this unity okay or it's done in a way that is pleasant and it promotes togetherness and unity gentle is an expression of kindness for lightness courtesy compassion um willing to yield is simply teachable where one is willing to listen uh when when ideas are put forth full of mercy mercy has to do with an expression of compassion love tenderness good fruits is glorifying god edifying people no partiality is fair you know there's equity in what is being done no hypocrisy is it's genuine and sincere it's not too faced that one thing is being done here and then another thing is being spoken elsewhere but it is genuine and sincere so these are the indicators of divine wisdom when we say that we are walking in wisdom these features ought to be a part of what is being done and when we do this there will be an outcome to this and he says the fruit of righteousness now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace so he says that it'll promote peace now he's adding a different term this is also acts of wisdom but now he states it as the fruit of righteousness or the right thing which is done and the results that it produces it will lead to peace and unity so yes so these are some instructions of James to the people in this chapter we talked primarily about tongue and we talked about wisdom okay so let's now move ahead to chapter four but before that any anything that you want to discuss or can we just move to the next chapter all right so let's continue we are in chapter four now um we will read from verse one to verse five could somebody please go ahead and read it for us chapter four James chapter four verse one to five where do wars and fights come from among you do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members you lust and you do not have you murder and covet and cannot obtain you fight and war yet you do have because you yet you do not have because you do not ask you ask and you do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures adulterers and adulteresses do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God or do you think that the scriptures says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealousy amen amen thank you um me so coming back to this thought of the issues in church the early church James as the leader of the church of Jerusalem is observing these matters now I know those of us who are pastors we understand that when people are taught in the ways of God it takes some time for them to catch on to yield to the word to yield to the work of the spirit and in the process we may find some matters that need to be addressed because we are here to establish a church we said it's the ground and the pillar of truth and so the church that we are establishing should reflect the nature of God and so when James is noticing that this spirit filled church is still having issues that are arising from where quite obviously they're arising from fleshly lusts now people as Paul wrote he wrote he said that walk walk by the spirit that you may not gratify the desires of the flesh so even Paul had to address these matters and he gave a solution he said walk according to the spirit so that these things don't happen among you now James is also pointing out and it seems like he's noticing quarrels he's noticing fights and the reason is people are trying to promote themselves they're trying to be prominent they're very self-seeking and for that he's saying all these things so from verse one to verse three he says where do wars fights come from among you do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members remember earlier also he said don't say that God is tempting you but the fact is that we are all tempted because of the desires that we have within ourselves again he points to those same desires and he's saying there are desires for pleasure within us now where do these quarrels fights wars he even uses the term war over here which is you know quite quite it sounds larger than just a fight so there are challenges there are grave challenges where do these things come from they come from the flesh the desires that one has not overcome which are a part of their flesh and then he says you lust and you do not have so notice again he is pointing out and he's saying that people's desires are not godly now does God not want to bless us see at the end of the day he's a god of abundance and as we read God's word there are rewards there are blessings yes there are times of testing when we have to wait on the Lord and you know sometimes wait and wait and wait doing the right thing before the answers are manifest however trying to push for the rewards or the blessings in a lustful way that's not a right thing to do so that's what he's saying he's saying there are people obviously he was noticing that they lust after these blessings they lust after good things that others have so it's it's basically covetousness right covetousness is what covetousness is to want what others have and not be satisfied with what we have so that was all going on in the church so they were lasting they were covetous you murder he says how how is it that he's saying murder where people actually murdering one another likely not when he uses the term murder here we can go back to the reference of the tongue maybe people were just talking ill of one another undermining one another with evil words so in this way what were they trying to do they were trying to obtain they were trying to gain they were trying to have more but he's telling them that the path which they have taken it's not the right path so he says yet you do not have because you're trying to get it in the wrong way but then he shows them the right way he states you don't have because you don't ask where do blessings come from where does reward come from where does every pleasure at his right and our pleasures forever more where does it come from God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him so he tells them the right way to get is to get it from God we cannot receive unless God gives it to us isn't it in John chapter 3 also Jesus said that it has to come from heaven for us even anointing when Elijah was um Elisha was going after Elijah Elijah said look I can't give it to you because where does it come from all good things come from God you've seen that in James 1 verse 17 he says that every good gift comes from the Lord so he tells the believers why is it that you don't have because you're not asking God for it so you do not because you do not ask so prayer is the right way of receiving blessings into our lives then he points out a problem with prayer also he says you ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures so now he's addressing those who may be going to the right source or depending on God for their blessings but he says even those who are asking why is it that they are not getting because of the wrong motivation we are asking for our own pleasures we are asking a miss a missus it's not coming from a place of faith it's not coming from a place you know prayer what does prayer real prayer what is it supposed to be it's supposed to be aligning our will to the will of God if we recall even in the garden of Getsemane Jesus started with something else he said take this cup away from me but as he engaged in prayer eventually what happened he came to the point where he said Lord not my will but your speed so aligning our will to the will of God is a powerful way of praying it's the right way of prayer but here he says people are praying why are they not getting it because our will is not aligned to the will of God so he says you ask a miss you ask so that you may spend it on your pleasures so these are matters that he's saying he's saying you'll get it from God what you want but you need to ask as per the will of God then he goes on to say was four and five you know it seems to be a different issue that he's addressing here he says adulterers and adulteresses very serious he could have stated things in a nicer manner to the believers but he is rebuking them and calling them what adulterers and adulteresses very very serious he says friendship with the world is enmity with God so he's now addressing the matter of worldliness where you know we as believers we can know God we can seemingly want the things of God but we have one foot in the world where we're enjoying all the pleasures of the world but we're also Christians we're also believers so he's addressing this matter and he's saying we can't do that and the reason why he is calling them adulterers and adulteresses is because they are lacking faithfulness as far as following after God is concerned okay and when he says adulteresses he is using this term because the church is supposed to be the bride of Christ and it's that equation you know the bridegroom and the bride and we know that in such an equation faithfulness is that's the bedrock that's the bottom line of such a relationship and so when we are relating with the Lord as His body and as His church there's no place for us to go with the world and not demonstrate complete faithfulness towards God and God takes notice of these things he even says when we are friends with the world who are we we are enemies of God and he says the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously so that jealousy is also the jealousy that you know you read about between husbands and wives or got to do with faithfulness when there is unfaithfulness there is that expression of jealousy where something that meant to be something that was meant to be you know within the boundaries of marriage but you know now that boundary has been trespassed and that's where the jealousy is applicable and he says you know God in the old covenant we read that you know God was jealous for his people or that he wanted them to be faithful to him and never move out of that place and that's what he means he says God is really very very serious about having our hearts you know aligned to his heart stop with that any any other thoughts or comments before we move to the next section here okay so we have seen two major issues addressed over here one was the wrong motivation to get from God his blessings the second one is worldliness and how God takes it seriously even to the point that he's calling his own people right adulterers adulteresses so we have to be very careful and not be worldly Christians now coming to the next section here let's read from verse 6 to verse 10 okay thank you Asha I couldn't hear some parts of what you are speaking but let's go on with the explanation here so now another aspect that he's coming to which is about pride and about humility so what does he say he says but he gives more grace therefore he says God resist the God's empowerment and it says gives more grace simply means God empower his godly ability to come into our lives okay everyone uh did you miss what I was saying just now was there a connection and true yes there's a connection little bit little bit okay no worries I'll just continue thank you so I'm saying in verse 6 we are told that God increases our ability when we are humble he give and to give more empowerment to whom to the humble and that is what is key here that one needs to be how walk in humility what happens the other thing is walking in pride but notice it says God resists the proud and therefore we must resist pride so this is about humility and as part of humility he also says submit to God submit to God okay earlier we said wisdom is what it heals God leave wisdom heals and see leading me right now I submit I submit to the word that I am listening to I give my life to the word that is coming to me right now so in this manner one can submit themselves to God and so he's talking a little bit about spiritual warfare he says resist the devil and he will flee so one part of the Christian life that satan is our adversary and that he is somebody who will look to create trouble in a believer's life and so position ourselves in obedience we should also be careful to resist the devil and he will flee from us and then you know he goes on to say draw near to God he will draw near to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded so two things here one is there is an invitation to come close to God and notice under the new covenant okay what a beautiful thing earlier when Moses came near the burning bush what happened there was an instruction to him okay remove your sandals he could I'm sure he couldn't go very close to the burning bush because that place was a holy ground and there was that sense of holiness of God where Moses could not go that near to God right so there were all those restrictions and limitations under the old covenant and we know the picture of the tabernacle also that people could not enter the holy of holies unless it was written out and it was only allowed for the high priest in those days but in the new covenant now that we have completed the book of Hebrews we understand draw near to God and God will draw near to you so there are no limitations restrictions of how close you and I can get to God you know it's so beautiful draw near to God and he will draw near to us and in the next part here he just calls us to repentance okay repentance is confession of our sins repentance is to know what what what is it that is not use in us purify your hearts you double-minded and then he also says lament and mourn and weep that's nothing but repent walk with repentance before the Lord humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up so walk with repentance before the Lord so at this point let's go ahead let's take a break we will come back please don't get off the call right we'll come back and then we will continue with the rest of the portions so thank you