Good.
So,
There was a little piece of the story that I should tell. And that's about Janet stomping her feet.
Okay. So the story goes like this. Our daughter, our middle daughter Maggie. Magherita.
She got married to a gentleman from California. Don't hold that against him. Nick, Nick is a Quite a gentleman and good good husband.
But one day comes over to our house. I think it was some holiday, you know, Thanksgiving or something.
And he says, Mrs. Price, What are you saying? Oh yeah, do you stomp your feet?
Shannon goes. No, I don't have, I've never done that.
Well, Maggie stomps her feet. Kind of like when. She's, and, and, and she goes, you know.
And Tanna goes, I'll never stop my feet. So she asked me about I said. You stomp your feet all the time.
She goes, don't either.
She starts to try to keep track of that. About a week later she goes I think I stopped my feet all the time.
But I'm not saying you're right. It was really cute, right? And, that sort of segue into our discussion, right?
Because We're sort of taking the focus of the Word of God. We're taking its, microscopic power, if you will, and we're labeling it or we're targeting.
The very things that cause issues and marriages. And it's very troubling to me to see this.
Happen over and over again. Why? Why are we so fleshly? Why are we so?
Like our previous father, the enemy. And it's very hard to put a handle on that to give that a an analysis or a diagnosis.
But whatever the diagnosis is. It has the same treatment plan, doesn't it? And it is the Word of God.
Now when we say that, we want to be careful because according to our previous discussion, the Word of God is not just a document to know.
It's a document to do. It's meant to be applied. It's meant to be practiced.
If you love me. You will keep my commandments and those Who will keep my commandments? That's the one who abides in me and the one who abides in me, then my father and I will make our abode with that person.
So the doing of the Word of God. Is that is absolutely paramount. To the fellowship of God.
Now, I want you to turn, this is just introduction. I want you to turn to Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter 2 because it is true that the doing of the Word of God is not always your first inclination, is it?
In fact, if you've gone through trials, maybe Meredith trials. You might find yourself in a state where you say, Well, quite honestly, I do not want to love her anymore.
I'm so mad and so irritated or I don't want to love him. I have no feelings.
For him anymore. And then you have somebody like me come along, say, well, what you got to do is obey God's words.
You gotta love your husband. You gotta love your wife. And you look at me like I got a third eye or a horn coming out of the back of my head and you say, that ain't gonna happen.
So how do we go from? A state where I don't want to. To a state where I do what God says.
I'm so glad you asked. Philippians chapter 2. Now this is very important. I'm going to begin reading in verse 4 because it's sets sets the context.
Do all things without complaining or disputing. Boy, that's a bull's eye, isn't it?
Well, I don't want to love that person anymore. Well, that would be complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of God.
You mean children of God don't line and complain? That's correct. I actually have a PhD in mining complaining.
I'm very expert at it. You can ask anybody. That you may become blameless and harmless children, that means harmless means without, guile, with your guiltless, you're innocent.
Without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. What does that imply? That implies that the crooked and perverse generation does all things with whining and complaining, right?
Among whom you shine is light. Oh, that was not the verse. I was looking at verse 13.
Okay, look at verse 13. But is God who works in you? To will. And to do.
For his good pleasure. See that? What's the will part? Well, that's the part of the soul, mind will and emotions, the will is that sort of that decision-making capacity that you have that not all creatures have.
Where you actually have exercise of free will. Exercise of free was a very in a very integral part.
Of the dimension of God's economy. It puts God totally at risk because you can choose to reject him.
And thus what you do when you do that is you inflict pain upon him as you would feel if you were rejected by someone not choosing you.
Correct? So God puts himself in the same sort of risk exposure, if you will, knowing that when you give an institute free will, you actually put yourself in harm's way.
It's much easier if we just regulate it everybody but God does not do it that way. How do you know that?
Well, Adam. Adam didn't choose to obey. You think that was just God was so sterile that it just kinda Bounced off his Teflon coding?
I don't think so. I think it hurt. I can get hurt a lot. And so this will is this idea of our.
Choice, isn't it? And what he's saying is Is that when it comes to the things of God?
I can actually work in your heart. To help you want to do the right things when you don't want to do them.
So when the husband or wife says to me, well, I don't really think I want to relationship with that person anymore.
I actually hope they become unfaithful so I could legitimately divorce them. You know, I've heard that.
I've heard that. And their heart is long way away from where God would want them. But I never, I never sort of consider it's time to throw in the towel.
But what I found is that God stays true to this word and he works in the heart to bring about a desire which you would never imagine you could have.
What does it require of you? Surrender. Got it this moment in time. I have no desire for any reconciliation.
I have no desire to make this work at all. As far as I'm concerned, that guy can go away and never come back or that woman can go away and never come back and the answer to that is just.
Be willing to let God change your heart. He'll do that part. But just be open. That's the surrender.
That's your part. Right? And then once that happens. Then he then comes around on the other side and he says, now I'll actually help you do it.
Do you ever have a sibling that needs to go and confess to the mom or dad that they lied?
And the brother says, well, I'll go with you. I'll be right there with you.
I'll help you, right? Well, this is exactly what God does. God brings you along, gives you the right desires, and then he comes around the other side of the door and the house.
And he says, now let's walk this together. I'll be right there with you. I will give you the energy to do what you thought you could never do.
Apologize, confess, repent? I can't, I'm not going to say that to that person.
They'll get all arrogant and prideful and say they're right. But that's what I want you to do.
I can't do that. But I will. Give you the strength to want the right thing. And then I will help you do the right thing.
Do you know what the Christian has? An absolute plan of guaranteed victory. I want to ask you what other religion has that?
None. Just go. Just Christianity. And so when we talked about this idea of doing the Word of God, it can be daunting.
It can be overwhelming. I don't even want to do it. But then God comes along and Philippians chapter 2 verse 1314 and 15 and he says, so all those things that you want to do, whining and complaining I'll give you a different desire.
So you actually look like a nice clean light and a crooked and perverse generation. So we talked about that in our last segment about doing the Word of God and it's and it's particular centrality to our lives and how it affects if you look back in chapter one how it affects your religious presentation.
That you're really looking out for that which is the most at risk or potentially abused or taken advantage of people group, the orphan and the widows, but more importantly you will have no stain from the world.
That's why we do the Word of God. The Word of God has that power in it. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not like we have a book of incantations.
It's God. I'll probably never live that imitation. Yeah, but it's God giving his word and then through his spirit.
Forming that word to be more than ink and paper. But to be living vibrant demonstration.
Like the Lord Jesus. He was not ink and paper or parchment. He was the three-dimensional presentation of the truth of God.
So that you could see him from whatever angle you looked at, you would see God's truth, word.
Power through him. And so when they saw him pray it wasn't just ink and pee parchment.
Oh go pray pray like this they saw that he addressed the father our father who art in heaven hollowed be thy name thy kingdom come they will be done they witnessed it and then they watched him demonstrate that as he healed the people around him three-dimensional presentation that's what he wants to do with you.
So that the clarity of his word. Is pristine. That's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
Then we, then we moved on to chapter 2 and we began to look at this idea. Of not just the Word of God, but but really prejudging a situation.
Now we want to apply this a little better and the word used there is a partiality and you prejudged not you but in this text that the pre judge it because there was a guy that really really looked nice and packaged and complete and someone who didn't and you prejudged that they perhaps had either some more holiness or some sort of blessing of God, but in reality their heart was at the opposite end of the spectrum, for it is the
person who has nothing to trust in except God alone that God really really has a special affinity. And he says, that's the person you should really admire.
That's the person you should really honor. And you need to understand that even those who are rich as a general rule, they're the ones that use their riches to blasphemy the name of God so don't prejudge based on weak data or or externals you need to look at the heart And that's what we need to do in the marriages, you know.
We have we can prejudge and one of the worst prejudgments is this. Honey, I'm really sorry.
I was wrong. You don't mean it. That's a pre judgment. You're not sincere.
You don't mean it. Now get don't get me wrong. If you violated the sacred vow of trust in a marriage.
It's going to take a little bit of effort to get it back. And you know what? You should expect some resistance.
Don't just go around saying, well, you're supposed to trust me because you forgave me.
My friend, you had a debt you could not pay. She or he gave you a, gave you a forgiveness, which you did not earn.
So if you if that other spouse has to work through the process of reestamp except of willing to put themselves at risk to trust you again.
Your part is to bear with that. Don't go demanding your rights, you don't have any.
You're already bankrupt. But I hear that. You're supposed to forgive me. That's what the Bible says.
Well, the Bible also says that you don't deserve for forgiveness. You got it free, all right?
If somebody is struggling to make that a consistent part of their paradigm. Give him a little break.
You were the one that caused all the debt anyway. Do you hear me? That's so important.
I hear that line back and forth. I think it's terrible. We don't demand of anything.
We don't say, God, you got to forget me, okay? So God would say, let, let me show you what I really, you really deserve.
Let me show you the cross. Where my son bled and died for you. That should silence us right there.
So work at that, okay? Work at that and, and, and attempt to have that non-judging partiality that creates such a divide.
And then he says, the really what you need to know is this royal law, this whole idea of how I view love one for another and don't live by any other law except this law this principle of liberty.
You ready? Mercy triumphs over judgment. What was my analogy? My illustration?
Maggie, that's right. The volleyball princess who could jam it down your throat.
I love to be on her team. Okay. But boy, I tell you, that's how God says.
One eclipses the other so that when you look from the one dimension, the one side of the fence, all you see is mercy.
If you go around the other side, you see the judgment was so varied there. So full as mercy, but one took the place over the other.
That's your story. That is the story of every believer in this room and that's what he wants us to exercise when it comes to prejudging a situation.
Okay, that's our review for this segment. But let's move on to the next paragraph.
Which is titled, In My Mind, authenticity. Authenticity. Now I think it's a fair statement as well as an accurate statement that out of all the things young people crave today, you know what they crave most out of the adult population?
Authenticity. Think about it out of all the generations that's been past 50, 60 years ago.
We are the current generation that has the most vivid as well as frequent prevalent reports of compromise Christians in their areas of service.
It rages from people who are in the business world who proclaim Christ to those who are in the Christian world who proclaimed Christ.
So it's and it is also in the non-a saved world in religious sections of our non-saved world where we have reports of those of authority who have abused those underneath them many times sexually.
You see, the, the young people today have that screaming in their ears. So the one thing above all else that they crave is something that has authenticity, something that's worth living for, something that's worth dying for, and Christianity is the one thing that gives that presentation.
Now let's read about it in this text. We are in, James chapter 2 verse 14. What does it profit, brethren?
If someone says he has faith. But does not have works.
Can faith save him? Now that should trouble you when you read that. We'll come back to it.
If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, see that daily food, this is a recurrent need, okay?
And one of you says to them, Are you ready? I'll act it out for you. It's much more effective that way.
Have a nice day! The Lord bless you. Have a blessed life. As they Hobble away and tottered clothes.
And a gaunt. Hungry look. As Price's version, it's coming out Christmas time.
You might want to order that copy. All right, depart and peace be warm and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for his body.
What does that property here say? What good is that? I can hear James given this lecture, you know, thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
It's lifeless. But someone will say, well, you have faith and I have work. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you that's the key phrase.
Show you my faith, buy my works, how, what is evident that I have faith? The resultant activity of such a belief system.
That's the evidence.
You believe that there is one God? Oh! Great! So do the demons.
Good company you keep, huh? Even the demons believe in tremble, but you do, but do you want to know a foolish man that faith without your works is dead?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar we're gonna take that apart so don't panic do you see that faith was working together with his works by the works of faith was made perfect and the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
That's a quote from Genesis 15 by the way and he was called the Friend of God.
We're gonna look at that phrase and also you see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only, which again should trouble you.
Likewise, must not rehab the harlot that means she had no good reputation also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way, that should trouble you.
For as the body without the spirit is dead so faithful that works is dead also. Martin Luther had great trouble with James.
And the reason why I did is because this segment right here. Now, what you have to understand is James is talking about authenticity.
And the way he's describing it, he's speaking in a very sort of exaggerated way to make his point.
They're also, there's also another facet to understand. And then other facet is that faith.
Has 2 sides of the coin. Now that's easy for us to envision, right? Because we all, we, we know that if you look at one side of the coin it heads, its heads and the other sides it's it's another image.
And yet it's one coin, correct? It's still a quarter or still a half dollar or whatever.
And that's sort of the the analogy that helps us understand this. On the one side, faith is definitely belief and that's it.
I believe in the person who spoke these words and that he is credible to keep them and therefore I can base my life on them.
But if you say to me, well, so therefore you're justified, you're made righteous by faith.
But there's another idea of justification and that's not being that's just not being declared right in the eyes of God by faith.
It's now showing the evidence. The evidence of being right with God. That there is a resultant expected reactionary outcome.
That shows that there was something on the other side of the coin that is has reality. And that's the activity of faith.
And that's what he says when it's justified. But that means it shows the evidence of such.
So there's 2 sort of ways to understand faith, but really the word justification. Now, James is in is talking about the latter evidence, her latter definition of faith.
The evidence that supports what happened in And that's, I think, what James is saying. Now, I'll show you why that's true based on the examples of Abraham and Rahab in just a moment.
But let's really dig down on this for a second. Okay, so it says number one.
I'm sorry I'm on the wrong slide. That's not good.
Yeah, that's what I want.
Okay. Authenticity, the reality of living faith by pardon for this. Alright, faith is lifeless.
That's key. Without works, without evidence. So let's read it. What does it profit my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him? In other words, is that faith really a reality? You see, saying, I'm not sure there's any reality.
It doesn't have a vitality, a life to it, unless there's evidence to support it.
And that's a real trueism even in the Christian life. Paul said that to the Galatians, he emphasized faith to be saved, but he says, but you're going backwards, you should be going forwards, there shouldn't be that evidence that you really did trust.
I have my doubts about you guys, right? And we do that too. People who black backslide, sometimes you ask that question, are you even born again?
But somebody born again would not do the things that you're doing would not be smoking the things that you're smoking or sleeping in the places that you're sleeping.
That's not evidence of being born again. What's your faith really real? Or was it just a mental assent?
Wasn't just a sense of confession to get someone off my back. Now this happened to us in our assembly.
Every once in a while if you notice the Lord sins allows people to come to the assembly who are not from your group.
And we had one lady that did. And she came in and she. Cried and teared up and confessed she was a sinner and needed a savior and you know how I know that because Chris Schroeder was speaking and boil on me tell you If you're not a believer in her speaking, you're gonna be a believer, right?
I mean, he's like in your grill and he's just pounding the gospel.
She's weeping, right? And at the very end she mentioned her money need. And so we gave her money and you know what we never saw her again.
Alright. Oh my goodness, Steve, you guys were burned. Yeah, you gotta understand. That nobody really robs God.
Alright, that doesn't happen. We're just an extension of his hand and people been stealing from God for a long time.
We were just the most recent chapter of that event. So it doesn't bother me at all. I think God's bigger than that little conniving episode, but it was clear that she had only words.
Never true. Faith. How do you know? The evidence was lacking and in fact the evidence was going in the opposite direction.
So it makes sense here, right? What does it profit my brand? What does it profit if that person said something but did not have the real vitality of living faith, not just spoken faith, something living shows signs of life.
Now if you're a Christian and your marriage And you're not showing the signs of life of a living faith.
I'm gonna ask you, are you really born again? You've been playing at this game.
This is a deadly game. Don't think you're fooling anybody, especially not God. He's a mission.
He knows you threw out and forwards and backwards and he knows if you' out and forwards and backwards and he knows if you've truly trusted Christ as Savior or you're just playing along.
Don't play at all! It will go bad for you every single time. So please, let's get real.
Let's be authentic. It's the world around you that craves authenticity and if you're playing a game of inauthenticity God won't let that go.
Trust me. So. What's the example? Well, in the practical sense, he says, well, you got a fellow believer and they're coming over and they're at your house.
And it's clear that they have need and it's not just a one-time need, it's a daily need.
You see that daily at destitute of daily food. And notice it says naked. What does that tell you?
It's obvious. It's obvious there's great need. You can't, you don't have to guess.
It's clear. Alright, and so what does that mean? Well, one of you says depart in peace, you know, oh have a blessed day.
You know, we say that, right? And I, that's sincere, I know. We mean that you can only have a good day if you had the blessing of God so you might want to turn to God.
Unsafe person. But it also can be hypocritical. Oh man, that's crash.
Sorry going through so many hard times. You have a blessed day my friend bless you bless you bless you and God is saying to you you be the hand of my blessing What if I give it and they misuse it?
You know what God says to you? That would be my problem, not yours. That's what he says.
God is not mocked in any way. So if you give something and somebody takes advantage of you seemingly.
Don't you ever worry about that. You got a god who's got cameras everywhere. Alright, and that's the whole point.
You do the right thing. Let your faith express itself and the matter that God intended it to be expressed.
And in this case, you want to meet that need that's before you. And it's a physical need.
Needed for the body. See that and and verse 16. So don't be afraid of that.
I remember one time my wife and I, we gave a gift and it was because there was this medical needs.
The medical needs were steep. We thought we we should we prayed we asked the Lord we gave it away and and that family went out and bought a TV.
We're going.
Medical needs and bills, TV set. Oh, something's wrong. And it affected us. We were gunshy to be giving generous in that way.
God made it clear, at least to my heart, I'm sure Jan's heart too. You do a according to my direction.
And you let me take care of their heart.
I don't think I want to do that, Lord, you know, I kind of look like an idiot.
Lord says that's my problem. You see what I'm saying? Let faith express itself. Let it let it be done.
That's how you show authenticity. And when the children said, but dad, they bought a TV set.
You say, you know, God is no man's stutter and even though we've given it our family we've given it the Lord will make this right you watch and see The Lord will make it right.
How do I know that? Because he promised to. It'll work all things together for good and the goodness of God is never Fourted by the crookedness of a sinful heart.
It'll never happen that way. It will never, it'll never be thwarted by the compromise of our souls.
God's goodness will always win the day my son. Let's watch and see. Let's wait on the Lord.
I tell you, that does more to that young person's faith than anything else in yours too. So go ahead, have that evidence of faith.
Authenticity. Authenticity, authenticity. Let me tell you another story and this one I might have told you before I can't remember.
But back in the day when we had 8 and 9 children in the house, I pretty much learned to have a private parking spot at the Sam's Club and so I would go there so often many times several times a week and one of the big trips is I would buy 14 gallons of milk at a time.
No one buys 14 gallons of milk at a time. I did. All right, I go through the chuck outline all this food.
Hey, you guys having a party?
This is just us. There's like 5 million of us.
Very embarrassing. I bought so much food at Sam's Club that I would get their catch back program.
I 700 bucks. You know how many gallons milk that is? That is, I like 4 cows, okay?
So I go in on and when I'm supposed to get my cash, which is February, my birthday month.
So we go in. And I got my son with me. And A little chicky boom there.
She's kind of like chewing gum. Not really paying attention doing the phone thing. And she counts out the amount 700 and she hands it to me.
It's crisp new $100 bills. I go thank you. So my son's watching me.
I said, well, let's go put it in the bank because I know if I hang on to that money and then going to be there long.
So we go over to the bank and we give it to the teller and she goes, Mr. Price, you have $800 here.
Did you say there was 700? Yeah, idea. My son, he goes. Yeah.
Yeah, what is it? Wow, what do we gotta do?
Any moment of temptation. Did not see that coming. I go. We're gonna take it back.
He goes.
I said, well, thank you. Just put in the 700. Let me have the 100 back.
We get in the car. We go over back to Sam's Club. We get in the car, we go over back to Sam's Club. It's just 2 min away.
The little girl who's chewing the gum, she's still on the phone thing, you know.
Okay. I said, excuse me, we were just here. Yeah, what do you want? I said, we're just here and and you gave us our cash back but you gave us a hundred dollars extra.
We're returning the $100 to you. Oh, that's nice. Thank you very much.
Have a nice day. Okay. I got no balloons. I got no confetti.
She didn't call the manager. I didn't get like, hey, you want a free candy bar?
Nothing. I got absolutely 0. Tells you where my heart was at. Alright.
Authenticity. Is a premium in the economy of God. Alright, okay. You know, hopefully you'll never forget that point.
Remember that story, Steve, told about Sam's Club? What an idiot. Alright.
Alright, move on. Let's go. Let's go. But some will say you have faith.
I gotta go to the next slide. Here we go. Alright. Some will say that I have faith.
Are you have faith and I have work? Show me your faith without your works and I will show you about my faith by my works.
That was the whole illustration that there is. Evidence of who you are, the substance of what you believe by your activity.
Then he turns to an illustration. Of the demonic world. And he says, well, the demons, look at that.
Look, read it with me in, verse 19. You believe there's one God, you do well.
Even the demons believe. Oh, and let me tell you a lot. They tremble too. But let me tell you something, there will be no fallen angels in heaven.
Okay, that's what he's saying. Now what's the disconnect? They believe in God. They did.
Do you remember when Paul in the Lord Jesus walked upon the earth and the demons would come out and those demon possess people and they say, you are Christ the Son of the living God.
Nip it, right? It's in the Hebrew. You gotta read the Hebrew.
Remember, Paul, they got the little girl walking around Philippine. Here's men, they're servants of the most hearty God, you must listen to them.
The demon leaves. Why, why? They are not of faith that shows that the faith they have and the integrity of who God is transforms the person to be something different because God has changed their soul, their whole perspective, their paradigm, their perspective, their whole look on life.
Because God has saved my sorry person from hell. Doesn't transform. Doesn't have evidence. So when this is very startling, okay?
So when you walk around and you say you have faith, but there's no evidence. Guess who you're related to?
Fallen Angels. That's what they do. Do, Steve, that's a little close to home, you know.
They're calling me, like a fallen angel, I'm not a the word, said that.
I'm just reporting it to you. You see, the point is Is it stagnant faith is lifeless?
Lifeless face.
Has has nothing worth acting upon. You can't be that way. As a believer, when it comes to the stability of your faith, when it comes to the Word of God being a doer, it will affect you and it'll be a pronouncement and a proclamation of the fact that there is a vitality about you that is totally different.
So you're out with all the gang at the bar on a work trip and they say, hey, what do you want to drink?
And you say, I'll take coke. You want any v, you want any whiskey in that?
How about ice cubes? That's what I'll take. Why would you do that? Because you, you have a thing against drinking or just because you know that God would look upon the situation and once your testimony to be different than the testimony of those around the table.
You say, well, Steve, I don't know about that. I'm just saying the world doesn't think you only drink one.
The world thinks you get drunk like they do, but they know no way to stop. You've got to think about your appearance of people.
You're going to not do some things because of that. Authenticity speaks. Oh, it speaks loudly.
How do I know that? When I when I was at the hospital. Everybody cursed. I did not.
Well, I did one time. That was terrible. I did not. And that alone.
Set it apart so that when we had an ER hospital party, guess who they asked to pray the guy that wasn't swearing.
See that? So you can have it about alcohol. You can have it about your mouth. You can have it about whatever it is.
That evidence is that that action is evidence of vital faith And people want vital faith. They want something worth living for.
And it's worth living for.
I want you to think about that because in the marriage You do the same. The spouse you have that shares your bed.
Is the one that can tell your hypocrisy. Just like that. So faith without works is dead.
I'm gonna be very bold here, okay? I want you to prepare you. There are some marriages, husbands in particular.
Who acts like they are the model Christian. But when they're at home. There, Dr. Chuckle.
They're yelling and screaming and cursing and swearing. There self-centered, they're demeaning to the children, demeaning to the wife, yelling at her.
All that's behind closed doors. No one would know it. And then we get in the van or whatever it is we go to the church on Sunday we go to meeting and we look like the model Christian.
And I need you to hear something. That is unacceptable. That is absolutely unacceptable.
And it cannot be named among the people of God. So if by chance and forgive me if I'm, that sounds like I'm yelling at you, I'm not.
I'm just wanting you to know. Faith without works. Just lifeless. Is it real faith?
Even the demons believe and tremble.
But they don't have real faith. Is that you?
Hmm. These are hard messages, aren't they? They're hard for me too. Look at this.
He goes and refers to Abraham. Abraham. Now, Abraham was about 75 to 85 years old.
When he was called out of, So if you look at this imaginary map. Over here is Er of the Caldis.
There's a Tigris Euphrates River all the way up to Haran. And Haran, he lost his daddy, okay?
And from Han, God called him, according to Joshua, he called them out of Er of the Caldis.
But they got waylaid up here and had on. After Dad dies, God says in Jenesis 12, I want you to leave your country, your people and your land.
Now that's a big thing in the ancient world. Your 3 identity factors are your family, your land, and your country.
He's asking him to restart the whole thing. And believe God and go down to the land of Canaan.
It goes down to Canaan, builds a few altars. I think one was in AI Bethel and then he had on out to Egypt about a year in Egypt and goes so well there came back to is to the land of Canaan visited Bethlehem, our Bethel, and then he was able to travel around over that period of time.
God appears to him and Genesis 15. And God reaffirms his promise and it says in that chapter and Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him unto righteousness.
That verse is quoted multiple times in the epistles, namely by Paul, or Galatians and Romans to be precise.
And that phrase is used to show that faith is what saves you. Only faith. He believed God and God then accounted, put to his registrar as a measure of rights standing with God justified by faith declared right in the eyes of God by faith alone that's key by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone.
That's key. Now, it was thin. He offered his son. You see, that's what the text says.
If you go back, I'll read it. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son.
So somewhere between 75 and 85, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
About how old was Abraham when he offered his son Isaac? That's a better question.
How old was Abraham when Isaac was born? 100. It says that the lab and I will go further.
That's in Genesis 22 and we will worship God and come back. The word lad in Hebrew is like a young adult.
Young enough to carry the wood. Young enough to fend off dad who was about a hundred 20 at this point.
I think little Isaac could take him. All right. And so you see this whole pattern there.
So let's just say Abraham was a hundred 20 and for the sake of math let's say Abraham was 80 when Genesis 15 happened.
That's 40 years. So what we're saying is, 40 years prior to the verse about offering Isaac, Abraham believed God, but we only understood it with clarity when 40 years later he says to his servants the lad and I will go further we will worship Yahweh or Jehovah and we'll come back to you and in that one statement we learned from Hebrews chapter
11 that Abraham believed that God would do something like raises some for the dead in order to keep the promise of being inherent, having an inheritance through his offspring in the land itself.
That's the only way Abraham got to that conclusion. I personally didn't know Abraham thought that so I read Hebrews 11.
And you gotta admit that's a whole lot of faith because up to that point in our theology of the of the Old Testament which was only 22 chapters there's not a lot of invention of resurrection.
In fact, there's 0 resurrection of resurrection. If you believe that Job was written around the time of Abraham as a contemporary, there's a little hint of resurrection.
But in Abraham's narrative, not a thing. So that's amazing to believe that about God.
What does that tell you? He believed that God was so powerful and so consistent to his Word that he would do the miraculous to keep his word even if he required me to sacrifice my son.
That's a. And that's what James is saying is evidence of this faith action dynamic. That there is not only what Abraham believed, we believed he believed that for at least the 40 years and it was evident all the way up because Abraham sacrificed or not sacrifice circumcised all the males and he was obeying God and then God came to him when he's 99 this time next year
you'll have a son Sarah goes I don't think so I don't think so. Why does Sarah laugh?
That wasn't me. That was Hagar. She was laughing. I added that some of the text.
You see that? All that faith stuff, but we only knew the gravity, the weight, the dimension of Abraham's faith by his action on Mount Moriah.
Now Rahab is the same idea. She also had collaborating evidence several years later and and here's what happened.
You remember in Joshua, Schewe chapter 2 8 through 13, I'm trying to describe it to you because I'm I'm losing my time.
You see what happened there is the spies came into Jericho. They were commissioned from Joshua to go check out Jericho and see what we're up against and they go in and wonder if wonders they come across Rahab the prostitutes house.
I don't know if that means they were looking for business or she was looking for business, but what I do know is that they were there scoping it out and she probably had a place right near the front gate because I mean after all that's what you do when you have that business, right?
And so they go in. And she goes, hey, can I talk to you guys for a minute?
Okay. Listen. We believe that your God It's gonna wipe us out. Because 40 years ago back in Egypt he parked the Red Sea.
We are scared to death. So how I'm gonna hide you. An exchange for a promise. That you will preserve me and my family.
When you get here with your God. See that? Now when did her faith begin? Some time in the last 40 years.
Because she cited the incident in Egypt. Actually, it's like almost 45 years ago. She cited the incident in Egypt and she believed God would keep his word and he was going to come across 4 decades.
For, I'm not even sure she was a lot are born when that news broke, right? But she believed that then she acted on it by hiding the spies.
It had been anywhere between, I'll say, 20 and 40 years before. You see that? I would not have known Ray have had that kind of faith.
Unless she would have demonstrated it by hiding those boys.
Your spouse does not know you have that kind of faith. Unless you demonstrate it. By Christ's likeness to him or her.
Your children do not know you have that kind of faith unless you demonstrate it in the manner that bespeaks of Jesus Christ.
That's what he's talking about. You want stability? Do you want firmness? You want patience to have its perfect work?
It's going to begin by authenticity. It that's where it starts, isn't it?
We need to call ourselves in the check. Because one of the things we have not been.
Is authentic with God. Hmm. May every man, woman. And child.
Have their lives transformed. He ends it this way, verse 26. The body without the spirit is dead.
If you don't have that life-giving breath of God in you, you're just a corpse, you're just, you're just Adams and electrons and skins and skin and bones.
But if you have the Spirit of God in that body, it has vitality. So does faith. Faith is more than just verbal assent.
Intellectual understanding. Faith is a reality in which the paradigm of your life is now prisoned.
Through that certain view. And you can see its color in living form. Brothers and sisters, that's our challenge.
That's what we need to do on our marriages. Now the next chapter gives you a very practical way to do this.
And it's about the tongue. And when I get to this chapter, which we're going to do in approximately 15 min or less.
You're going to see some things that are very hard to swallow, no pun intended. And what you're going to see at the end.
Is you're gonna say, how does you're gonna ask the question, how how does my tongue sound so ruthlessly evil?
Why does it have such poison in it? And the answer is going to be, what's your source of wisdom?
All right, so let's see if we can do this in an efficient and somewhat complete manner. He says, my brethren, let not many of you become teachers. Why is that?
Because you're using your tongues. By the way, that verse scares me to death, I might end.
Knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. In other words, as a teacher, you're understanding, you're trying to grasp these things so you can communicate them and and it comes out of your mouth you are at greater risk of looking like a hypocrite than anybody else.
And that scares the life out of me. I have to tell you that. Oh boy, that's why the series is kind of personal.
Now look at this, for we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in a word, he is a perfect man.
You remember, let patients have its perfect work, same word, telllias. And what he means by that is it let this tongue thing be used as a tool within your light so that you become a completed individual in the eyes of God, that everything is working like it should.
You are fully mature. And the barometer of that in this particular case of showing that there's evidence of your faith.
Is what comes out of your mouth. For out of the mouth from the heart the mouth speaks so we know it's in the heart by what the mouse says And he says, that's why you gotta take this seriously.
And now he's going to use some illustrations. All right, so I called it illustrator.
He says this. If anyone does not stumble in a word he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body, all right?
Now he's using the idea of the horse and the bridle, okay? Now when I was a little boy, I was in Illinois and I, and we were visiting my cousins and they had a horse.
And the horse was gigantic to a little 4 year old, so I got on the horse and they let the horse take me around the yard, but I couldn't stop the thing.
I was yanking on the bridle with all my four-year-old strength. I was saying, whoa, whoa, and the horse wouldn't woe.
And we walked around, walked around, he just did the loop, you know. We come back, I said, how do you get to stop this thing?
He won't stop already, right? And they showed me, yeah, you how you have to hold pull the bridle back correctly.
And a little 4 year old boy could control an animal 10 times his size. By the little thing in its mouth.
He says that's what the tongue can do. You can open your mouth and say the wrong things and it will absolutely control everything about you.
I tell you that because Is there anybody in here that said words that we wish we never said? Yeah.
And you know what faith does? True faith. Faith expresses itself in controlling the one thing that seems to have no control over any human that has no control by any human being.
And so he says, look at the horses. What happens to them? Look at this other other dimension.
Ships and and their rudders. You got such a small piece of the ship's anatomy, a little rudder, a huge vessel, and it can control the course of that vessel.
No matter what, a little bridal can control the direction of the horse. The tongue has that kind of power in it.
The tongue has that kind of dimension to it and you've got if you can control that. You are a man of God, a woman of God.
All the times I think we had to I had to have the last word all the times I think I needed to say my argument over and over.
Actually my wife will tell you that. Steve, you actually said that is the fifth time you said it.
I is? Yeah, I actually got it the first time. Oh, but I'm right. I say that.
I'm right. Hmm. I just keep my mouth shut and quit showing you how foolish I am, right?
All right, so all they turn the whole body, know they are so large and driven by fierce winds they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires even so the tongue is a little member and both great things.
So what does it do? Well, it's it's it's devastatable. It destroys when not controlled by the Spirit of God.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles and the tongue is a fire. It's the one that's in initiates the fire.
And it's sustains the fire by adding the right wind and the right element of sparkability and ignition.
And it says this, a world of iniquity, the tongue is set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on course the sets of fire, excuse me, sets on fire the course of nature.
You see that it's a igniter, a blaze igniter. And where does it come from?
It is set on fire by hell. It's the originator of all things is by the devil's domain that one place designed for the devil.
Oh, listen. The tongue needs to have the Word of God controlling it so that it does not control.
A destructive way the course of your life. Do you ever say the wrong thing in the meeting at work?
The wrong thing to the boss, the wrong thing to the child?
It was like yesterday to me.
I told my son to clean up the basement. So that I could get to an object a friend was gonna come and borrow.
And he didn't. And I dressed him upside one and down the under. In a very harsh and cruel way.
With my tongue. With my tongue. I did not.
I created. Such a moment of fire in his heart.
I walked halfway up the stairs in the Spirit of God. Was grabbing a hold of my throat.
That was wrong.
Somehow by the grace of God, I turned halfway up the steps. I went back downstairs and I said to my son, I'm so sorry.
I said what I should never have said. I was wrong. Will you please? And he threw his arms around my neck and sobbed on my neck and said.
Oh daddy, I forgive you.
Oh, is a dangerous weapon. So. Says here it's untamable.
No, man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, that is when in control of the wisdom of the earth, full of deadly poison, you see those little little little images there, you can't control the animal world.
You know, there is that story, famous story of the circus master, the ringmaster, and he, he taught the Boa constrictor to go around his neck and he would grunt and it would do that then he'd grunt again and the snake would come off and after many a shows one time he grunted and the snake came off and the last time he grunted the snake didn't
come off and just killed him. Can't tame the animal world. Right? Can't tame the tongue.
And so he says to, he says this to us, the tongue cannot be harnessed. It's like a poisonous snake.
I had a dream the other day. I was very violent actually. I was walking down the road. I felt and the cobra was in my face.
And I went, oh! Maybe I was dreaming about this passage. Kind of a nightmare.
You know, it says this, I'll read it because it has more effect. No man can tame the tongue and his unreal, full of deadly poison.
You know, poison, from a snake bite is really devastating. The first thing it does if it bites your hand, which is usually what is bitten, the hand blows up within hours and it looks like a boxing glove.
I have to take the antivitum very quickly and I have to inject it around the injection site multiple times and then sometimes up the arm and that's just to control the devastation of the hand.
But the poison gets into the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is a draining system which does not include blood.
It's like the white cells and it deposits into your superior vena cava and specifically the leftsoplavian vein.
I'm telling you all that so you think I know what I'm talking about. No.
When that happens, the body then pumps that toxin to the vital areas of the body and the body is designed to feed the vital areas of the body first.
So the lungs, the heart, and the brain. And one of the first areas that gets blood flow from the heart is your, your, your medulla, your ponds.
It's this area of your, of your neck. Right. And that's why when you wanna kill somebody, you stab them there, you knock out all the breathing centers, but you don't need to know that.
So.
Let a marriage conference. Hey, we learned how to kill somebody.
So that toxin gets up to the respiratory cis centers and it begins to affect your muscles so they get paralyzed and it usually goes depending because of the anatomy from the feet all the way up and eventually you can't breathe anymore and you suffocate to death.
Now that doesn't happen in moments. That happens in hours, right? So the poison of a snake is both a.
And long term. And that's exactly what the tongue does. You say it immediately and it causes damage and you try to give the antiivism of humility but make no mistake it's had an effect on the heart of that person and you're going to have some collisions that you can expect later on.
So when you fight with one another and you say, I want to divorce. Let me tell you, that has a long term effect on somebody.
It shakes their confidence in trusting each other. And if you've been a marriage and abused such violent words to one another, the only thing you can do is grant forgiveness when it's not deserved because that's the only healing ball.
To the long term effects of the poison of the top. Now it goes like this. He says it's like a poisonous pipe or full of deadly poison.
And then he says this, he says, Does a, oh yeah, with it, we bless our God and Father.
And with it, we curse men. Who have been made in the similitude and the likeness of God.
He's saying, listen, the reason why it's so deadly. Is because on the one hand you say praise Jesus, he's the ultimate king and on the other hand we say somebody Who's been made in the assimilate of God with curse words and derogatory statements and hateful intonations and all kinds of nastiness.
And he's saying that's inconsistent with the faith that you're supposed to have. You are not allowed to say beautiful things to God at the same time.
Trample everyone else in your life because of your speech.
Do you know how many times that happens and merges? Do you know how many times they come to our doorstep because they've been devastated by this kind of poisonous communication.
Do you know how often I've done it in my own family? I thank God for Janet.
Her name is her name has a connotation of grace and gift and that's That's what I have in her.
I have no idea how she has been able, except by the grace of God to forgive me for all the times I have introduced poison in our marriage.
And maybe you're that way too, and you've done that. Maybe you've, you've been stubborn and your words have been antagonizing and and meant to hurt and meant to scar and it's followed by actions of the same caliber and dimension and you know there's no reason why you should even be together I have to tell you you cannot pay back all the wrong you've done.
It's got to be the grace of God and the forgiveness that you receive that you therefore give to one another.
That's it. There is no way to restore except that way. Now, how do we prevent this mess?
Wisdom. Look in verse. You're gonna be late for dinner, sorry. Alright, look in verse 13.
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.
See that word, that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. See that word meekness of wisdom.
See that word, meekness of wisdom. See that word, meekness? Remember that one power under control.
But if you have bitter envy, remember that one power under control. But if you have bitter envy, oh, you gotta see this.
Remember that one power under control? But if you have bitter envy, oh, you gotta see this. This is key.
I'll be done in 2 min. Trust me. Don't be fooled. It's a sham, but if you have bitter envy and self seeking, that' and demonic.
So if you're filling your mind with all of the fleshly thoughts that I'm right and he or she is wrong that I need to have the right last word that I know better than anyone else.
I'm the expert and you should listen to me. That I deserve an apology. All that nastiness.
You know where it comes from? This planet. It fulfills the desires and scintillating senses of the flesh.
And it's from Satan himself. Congratulations. You're on the wrong team.
Brothers and sisters. Your wisdom, what you think about, your perspective of all living has to be from the wisdom of above.
And how do I know that? Because it's sesame. Look. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure and he describes it and everything you see there are descriptions of Jesus Christ.
Pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield. When is the last time you used your words to be willing to yield?
Oh, my Savior did. Not my will, but yours be done. Those were the words of my Savior, full of mercy and good fruits.
And when that Pharisee, the rich man came to him, the Lord loved him, having loved him, he spoke to him the truth, without partiality, no prejudging and without hypocrisy.
He didn't look at math you and say, you dirty scum back. And Matthew was a tax collector.
Jesus, a Jew had many reasons to hate him. No, and there was no hypocrisy in the Savior.
That's what bugged the Pharisees so much. He actually couldn't be accused of the same thing.
Oh, listen, the wisdom from above, that which you feed your heart, that which becomes part and parcel of what you are inally, that needs to be spoken by your words.
That needs to come out of the heart, not that which is from below earthly, central, demonic, full of selfish ambition and envy.
Brothers and sisters, there is no way this can happen because you have strong will. Because you are a great persever.
It only happens when you confess I can't do it. I can't get myself from the from the edge of this bank into the wall, healing waters of the pools of Bethesda.
Can you fix me? And Jesus comes along and says, oh, I can do better than that. And I want you to know that because these are the things I'm seeing destroying marriages, so many words, curse words, yelling, screaming, violent behavior, wanting to kill someone with their words, I've heard it all.
That is not. The faith God is looking for.
So I turn you to the wisdom of heaven. I turn you to the wisdom of God that has Christ as its sinner.
And what I want you to do is to think about Christ, to read the life of Christ and understand his purity and his peaceableness and his in his authenticity and his non-predging nature and all of those facets mentioned there and let who Christ is become your identity.
Let who Christ is become your perspective of all things in life, whether it getting up in the morning or going to bed at night or handling the simple thing is when the child spilt the milk at the table.
Let all of it have that perspective and that's when the words will no longer be poised.
They'll be healing bomb.
Love to tell you. I've done it. But my wife's here to set the record straight.
How my words. So, so wrong.
Maybe you would join me. And humbling ourselves before God. And crying out to him. Father.
What can we say to you? We don't wanna make this all about us. We see the wisdom of Christ.
We see that which should fulfill our souls and dictate our speech. But Father, the truth is, is that the exact opposite is happened and I don't know how else to fix it except to cry out to God to you who is known to storehouse mercy in heaven and just unloaded upon us so that you might change our hearts, change how we think, change how we do so that our faith has an
authenticity that speaks. Of the grandeur of your glory. Oh, we confess to you.
We've said.
We confess to you. We're incapable to change it. We confess to you.
That the power of God must rest upon us, fulfill us. And Philippians 2 13.
We won't leave the spot. To you have blessed us with the answer to such a prayer. In Jesus name.
Amen.