Published: April 13, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: The Epistle of James - Part 11 | Scripture: James 1:19-20, 26; 3:1-12; 4:11-12; 5:9, 12
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I think we probably have about two more weeks to finish up and I did notice that those two weeks are blank on the refreshment schedule so if anybody wants to
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Vie for the the Fellowship Bible Church Bake Off prize got two weeks to do it
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let's go to the Lord in prayer father again we do thank you for the opportunity to be in your word we thank you for your word for the depth and richness of it
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for the knowledge that we have that we will never fathom its depths but every time we open it we learn
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and we do pray that your spirit would always continue day by day to illuminate your word to our understanding more and more
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our souls to your service our hearts to your love your love we pray that you would bless our time together and that it would be fruitful that it'd be beneficial that it would be
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honoring to you and to our Lord Jesus Christ we pray that you would help us to understand what James has to say about the tongue
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the tongue and to consider very seriously our our own our own tongues individually that we might as Paul says examine ourselves
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we pray that you would shed light on our path that we might walk in your ways for we ask in Jesus name amen
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phrase that we're all familiar with from childhood sticks and stones may hurt my bones but may break my bones but words will never hurt me and no one knows who wrote it but we know that it wasn't
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James I know you know that much in fact in fact as a as a phrase if if you remember ever saying it saying it you know that the reason you said it was
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because the words hurt deeply and you were trying to save your own pain and to present a strong front but
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you probably would have rather been physically hit physically hit I remember the only I don't remember what caused it but I have a feeling it had to be words
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and they must have come out of my mouth because Gabby Hall proceeded to throw a rock into my mouth and this is a crown that I've had since
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I was I was eight years old okay but I never notice it I mean she probably still remembers what it was I said she's in therapy because of what I say I mean but you know I remember what
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happened but I don't remember the event and as far as my tooth Dennis not only fixed the tooth but the Gap that I had between my two teeth so you see God's
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Providence at work there you know I don't have a I don't have a gap anymore I don't whistle physical pain broken bones what not they they do
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heal and oftentimes without any outlasting impact at all but words are immortal are immortal Jesus says in Matthew 12
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one of the most uh use the word almost verbally violent of our Lord's
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monologues is in Matthew 12. it's where he talks about the unforgivable sin he talks about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit you know he's he's really but he says um
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in Matthew 12 but I say to you that for Every Idle Word men may speak they will give an account of it in the day of judgment for by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be
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words our tongue our tongue is um is um according to James it's a world of wickedness and I have up here on the board the the
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verses where Paul or James speaks either literally or explicitly of the tongue starting in James 1 26 where he mentions the tongue
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the tongue but also just Place basically speech where in verse 19 he says be slow to speak we've looked at those verses so I'm not going to spend a great deal of
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time on them but this gives you somewhat of a progression of James's intensity as he is bringing up this particular topic but also shows the again the
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topical thread that move that weaves through his entire book going from chapter one all the way through chapter five but you can also see that as with
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several other topics he's not consistently intense all the way through way through he introduces the tongue literally explicitly I should say in chapter 1
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verse 26 okay and he basically says if any man considers himself religion and cannot tame the tongue his religion is false and taming the tongue really is a
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foreshadow of what he's going to talk about here in chapter 3. but just like in the discussion of riches chapter 1 you're left with a
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question whether or not the rich man is or isn't a believer and it simply says that his riches will he will pass away as the flower in the in the hot wind but not really you know
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very intense but by chapter 5 you know he's he's um calling down woe and anathema prophet-like upon the rich
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so the climax doesn't come in the middle for every theme and I think if we could somehow make a real tapestry I think we would
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see the the harmony of James's writings that he that he doesn't drive at all to the end and then boom that he reaches
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the crescendo on one Topic in chapter three another Topic in chapter five we're going to see that that the the law of love the crescendo there is in
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Chapter 2 and chapter three and then of course there's Faith versus Works in chapter two so I'm not Musical
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but it's not just a a steady drum roll up and then you know the crescendo it it really is very well balanced in terms of
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each theme you can trace it through and you can see that he he hits the the emphasis of that theme somewhere else so that it doesn't
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um so it's not I guess the world would be cacophonous with another theme that I think that probably makes more sense to our musical people and I'm probably saying it wrong but it allows it to
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stand out on its own and not get intertwined with what he has to say about riches um so you know I think it's a it's a beautiful book I've never really looked
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at it that way I've never looked at it just by following the themes the threads of different concepts through the book and seeing how James
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just with with great skill weaves them together and and you can see even using the same words and the same kind of metaphors again in verse 26 of chapter
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one he says bridles the tongue in chapter three where he's really talking about it he talks about the the bit and with the bit we Bridle the horse and
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so he uses the same but he develops it more and so the theme of the tongue um you know he says in chapter 3 verse
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six it's a it's it is literally a world of wickedness and so it it really um Calvin Calvin said that it's a slender portion of the flesh that
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contains in it the whole world of iniquity and I don't think that's overstating what James has to say about the danger of the tongue
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so the phrase you know sticks and stones may break my bones that would be better than the damage that is done Often by the Tongue the Tongue now again we can
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we can over interpret James like we could do with the riches and say that James is advocating a vow of poverty but we could say here that that he's he's um
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he's advocating that you should never speak a harsh word well we talked about that when we talked about anger in chapter one and that that incorporated for example verses 19 and
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20. to be slow to anger and part of being slow to anger is to be slow to speak in fact they kind of go I don't know if
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they go hand in hand but it's fairly consistent that he who is quick to speak is probably
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is probably quick to say something wrong something regrettable something regrettable something that will come under the judgment and so and so um in chapter one he's really focusing
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on anger he says in verse 20 that the anger of man does not bring about the righteousness of God but woven in there you can see the thread of the mouth because of course with James it's the
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mouth that expresses the anger you know with the anger is kept inside and not expressed then it does little or no harm to the community anyhow what it does to
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the individual may be a different story but keeping your mouth shut for a longer period of time is a common
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uh point of wisdom literature it's not in the Bible but you've all you've all heard the phrase that it is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you were fool and then to open it
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and remove all doubt but in the in the Bible in the Book of Proverbs we do read that in a multitude of words sin is not lacking but he who
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restrains his lips is wise there is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword but the tongue of the wise promotes health so it it's not advocating wisdom
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literature does not advocate a vow of silence any more than a vow of poverty now I think it's interesting that both of those vows
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were common among them the monastic orders in the Middle Ages this idea that if I divest myself of all wealth and I keep
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my mouth shut all the time that I will not sin I can be just as greedy and avaricious and envious
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and envious as a poor man as I might be as a rich man perhaps more so and I can think evil and hatred in my heart to my
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brother and never speak it and be just as guilty before God as if I did so you know the the actual action or not speaking
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is not solving the problem and we're going to see that more next week when we talk about the perfect the Royal law that that that not speaking or divesting yourself of all riches that's not the
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according to put off all temptation by putting off the thing itself is actually not wrong is is focusing on externalence
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yeah it is a focus on the external and not upon the heart and therefore it is in fact irreligious and when when James says if any man claims to be religious but cannot Bridle his tongue well we we don't leave the
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horse in the stable and certainly when he's in the stable he doesn't have a bit in his mouth right and we don't need the rudder when the ship is docked
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okay so to use James's own metaphors we need the Bridle when the horse is moving right we need the rudder when the ship is sailing is sailing we need to control our tongue while we
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speak does that make sense I mean if we just pull together those metaphors then that would argue against a vow of silence because like yeah a horse doesn't need a bit and bridle when it's not moving and
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those metaphors are meant to show control not absence of action but rather control so that's a good point they are focusing
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on exteriors and again that's where unfortunately much of medieval Christianity went which is why there were many pietistic movements like the
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Brethren of the common life you know the Thomas the campus type stuff where people were realizing you know this this isn't it this is all ritual this is all external this is not
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what we read in scripture um so when we talk about the the tongue in the scriptures another proverb a fool has no Delight in understanding but in
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expressing his own heart I think that one addresses the be slow to speak that that there is a tendency
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to want to just express our own opinion and and it's a very common thing in in our culture
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our culture um a game of one-upmanship you know that somebody uh shares a completely innocuous event or something and and then someone else has to come in and say
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well and and and one-up that and there's a lot of folly in that knowing that every word Every Idle Word as the Lord says Every Idle Word
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should we have any Idle Words did Jesus have any Idle Words no I mean you can't imagine him just bantering okay
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bantering okay well idle meaning just without thought your gears aren't engaged you're idling okay but without thinking just not thinking and and realizing that
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it is important to think before we speak and so I mean we always we're not going to be perfect we're always going to misspeak sometimes I think I have Tourette's
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because sometimes I say say things just and my family knows this I just say it but fortunately not like Tourette's I don't have Tourette's and I don't you know swear but
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the psalmist says set a guard upon my lips that's a that's a beautiful image but we don't really take it to heart
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um so by idle speech I I do think he just means speech without thought and and whereas we we will never attain to a
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perfect combination or or cause and effect type of relationship thinking before we speak that should still be our goal and we should be and then we read
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something like James we should be more and more cognizant of the Great um instrument of evil that resides in our mouth
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now he doesn't mean the physical tongue um clearly when he uses the word tongue he's speaking of speech
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that's that's what he's talking about but we use our tongues to speak and in fact the word for speech or um you know the word glossolalia is the word tongues
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word tongues so we caught we talk about different languages as being different tongues so it's a very common um simile the connection or figure of speech between the um the tongue and
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speech so Paul addresses this issue and I think it's very interesting in his um his his anthropology in Romans 3
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and he basically indicts Fallen man from head to toe or maybe from toad to head but but his entire um pretty much his entire body his feet
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are Swift to shed blood or to commit evil but he says in verse 13 their throat is an open grave with their tongues they keep deceiving the poison
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of asps is under their lip so that's a quote from Psalm 5 and Psalm 140. in fact the whole section there in Chapter 3 of Romans is really a
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concatenation of Old Testament verses that speak of well total depravity they speak of of how how completely
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Fallen both Jew and Gentile are but included in that is the tongue so James and Paul and Jesus I guess the point of this initial initial discussion
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is to show that they all agree with one another you know there's no disagreement between James and Paul and Jesus concerning the words we speak that we we are liable
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for the words that we speak and that we will um we will come under judgment that's what Jesus says that they will be they will come under judgment
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now I don't think that we can lose our Salvation I'm not you know we're not going there but we all must appear before the Throne of Christ to give an account for the Deeds Done In the Flesh
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Paul includes himself there in second Corinthians 5. Corinthians 5. we like to think I I believe in in Christianity that Christianity that we've escaped judgment
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now we've escaped condemnation but we have not escaped judgment and that is true for every believer
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but it is even more true for those who take on the mantle of teaching and that's James starts out and we're going to focus mostly on chapter three
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in terms of what he has to say about the tongue and hopefully have a have a few minutes to talk about you know here here he talks about speaking of evil
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against your brother and grumbling against one another this one may not initially appear to belong
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but in chapter 5 verse 12 he says don't swear an oath but let your yes be yes and your no be
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no almost an uh direct echo of Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount I think that one of the reasons I put that up a little higher is it is a
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positive statement positive statement but it is very very significant because at that point he's no longer talking about necessarily he is in little ways
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our speech to one another but rather when we bring God into our speech that's what an oath is is we bring we bring the honor of the name of
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God into our speech so it's a it's a very neat and Powerful um conclusion um conclusion tying up that thread with a very
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significant knot at the end so the the uh the discussion though really really hits its its peak here in James chapter 3.
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yeah it says well it is it's the word it is the word I didn't bring my Greek Testament but he says if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not Bridle his tongue first thing you can say is it's the same word
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as in verse 27. okay so he might be using it somewhat tongue-in-cheek in verse 26. but in verse 27 he's saying this is the
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real thing real thing so I think between those two like like all words you know there's a definition that you get out of Marion Webster but then there's how the writer's using
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it and so I think the contrast that he is making between verse 26 and verse 27 is very important in defining the word and I would say that what he means is your
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profession of faith okay if he said if you say you're a Christian and yet you can't control your tongue then your profession is vain
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this is a true profession of faith and he's going to get into that in chapter 12. when he talks about faith and works religion they probably were using it
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because it does speak it's it's I think it's the word I think it's the word latrea but I'm not positive it it has to do with our it's a kind of the word that was used in the Old Testament for the
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temple worship temple worship so it's a word that is used in the Greek to signify one's faith one's belief system kind of how we use it now
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it now but the word has become almost entirely a noun a noun and even within evangelicals when we talk about someone who is who is you know we respect their
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um their walk with the Lord we don't usually call them religious that's that's a pejorative term in our culture when you call someone religious that's usually a negative we'll say
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something like he's very sincere he's devoted or even we might use the word pious but not religious I don't think it had
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necessarily negative connotations back in the first century I think it had more just the significance that you
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you let people know that you are an adherent of this particular religion or faith
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it's become more of a noun to us now we can we talk about religion as more of a noun and that's where I think it's important to see that he's using the same word in those two verses one in a negative way and the other in a
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positive way and that helps set the definition for James because religion as a word is is as fluid as any other word
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to Yahweh your God you shall not delay in fulfilling it for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you and you will be guilty of sin but if you refrain from vowing you will not be going right right and when we if we can get there
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this evening it's a very important concept it might be I may even just if I don't get there this evening we'll start next week with it but um The Vow itself the oath itself
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is only pertinent in the midst of a lying Society just as law has no Foundation except in a lawless
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Society so the the vowel if anything if anything highlights our highlights our disingenuity our our tendency to lie our
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estrangement from the truth okay why do we make a man take a vow or a woman take a vow before giving you know giving testimony why do we do that because we don't trust
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them and we actually think okay this person's a liar so we're going to make him take a vow
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he's a liar can he not lie in The Vow you know you think about it and and you see the the lack of wisdom the Earthly wisdom of the whole thing and that's
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what James is pointing out so in chapter three where he really again he hits his stride in terms of of the tongue he says he starts out by saying let many of you
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become teachers my brethren knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment now I'm going to stop there because I was a bit surprised in in my
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studies this week as to how many commentators believe that all of the verses after that pertain to the teacher
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and I I really had never seen it that way that what James has to say concerning the tongue concerning cursing blessing
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God and cursing your brother all pertain to the teacher and I have some examples of it but um you know I I don't want to
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um you know the point but I'm going to read a couple of them um one of them the situation presupposed by this passage is a community torn apart by
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strife and dissension because of too many people vying for the office of teacher prospective teachers an attempt to acquire a following probably entered
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into bitter debates with one another similar to those between Jesus and the Pharisees and the Sadducees as described for example in Luke Chapter 20. opponents were cursed
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similar to the curses uttered by Paul against the so-called judaists of Philippi as if there was something wrong with that with that James contends that only people in control of their tongues are qualified
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to teach to teach well that may be true or at least we can say that those who are not in control of their tongue are disqualified from teaching
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but does that mean that what James has to say in chapter 3 doesn't pertain to those of us who are not teachers does it mean that we can't do any damage with our tongues
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do we not bless God and curse our fellow man do we have to be teachers to do that Ralph Martini he has a really interesting take on the metaphor of the
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tongue and again I've never encountered it before I guess I've never studied it deeply enough to see what some people say but say but he believes the tongue is a metaphor for
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the teacher the teacher and that the body is the congregation
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well but he's not alone you know that's what surprised me is how many how many now not for example Calvin um but there are quite a number who um
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who who think that what we're dealing with here is is directed entirely at teachers but I think that on the one hand we have to we do
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have to take James all the way through at face value verse 1 clearly is addressing the greater responsibility that is incumbent upon those who teach no getting around
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that and it also meshes with things that James or Paul has to say and also the writer of of Hebrews in Chapter 13 he
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calls those those who will give an account okay and we'll talk about that in a moment when we talk about this judgment that Paul or that James speaks of
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but as he goes on into chapter three and now I'm going to read the rest of it I I think the most natural reading is that the teacher is simply
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a supreme example of the danger of the tongue that because of his responsibility he can certainly do greater damage
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and therefore it's worth the warning to any who would consider being a teacher that you will incur a stricter judgment
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but without erasing the fact that so will the rest of us that that it's not that all of the Judgment against evil speech or or sinful speech is going to be directed at
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the teacher yes he's like the Watchman on the wall he is going to be held to a stricter standard but that doesn't mean the rest of the community can simply ignore the fact
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that the enemy is approaching you know just kind of picture it this way what if the enemy is approaching at a different part of the wall and somebody is just out for an evening
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stroll after dinner but he's not a Watchman and he looks out and he sees the enemy approaching but he says to himself I'm not a Watchman
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and he goes back to his house no okay that is a complete misreading yes there are those who are primarily responsible as Watchmen
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but I think what Martin and others are doing is they've fallen into that clerical trap clerical trap where the teacher is the mediatorial representative of the whole community
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and you can you can kind of perceive it as you read what they're saying and so much of the of the authority and so much of the power is residing in that that
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Pastor that preacher and they really can't even see beyond that because they have made him a mediator and therefore his word is is is is more
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dangerous than that of of any believer
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well it's it's actually not the word stricter it's the word greater um and I think we can see from what Paul says in First Corinthians 3 what that
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actually means and what we'll get to that very fact we're going to get to that right now because um Douglas moo
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exegete but I would have I would have legally changed my name personally um but he says let me see where where is that page 185 he again this is just
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interesting what what men do with these verses now if you were simply to read chapter 3 verse 1. and you read that teachers will have a
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greater or stricter judgment would you not think that they will have a stricter judgment
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yeah I mean there's there's really no way around it in fact when I started reading some of some of what some of the commentators said I actually pulled out the Greek the Greek and it's the word matezone which is greater and there's no other way of taking it
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that that this is greater higher more comprehensive it's a different judgment okay they're going to incur however you look at it it is not the same but he
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says um says um moo writes clearly clearly again as I've said before that word right there ever read that word understand that it isn't
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all right whenever an author says clearly James cannot mean that Christian teachers will receive a more severe penalty than other Christians
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few indeed would become teachers in that case with an exclamation point that is one of the most inane comments I've ever read in a commentary
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that's kind of what James is saying don't many of you become why because clearly
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because clearly you're not going to receive a stricter judgment even though clearly James says you will
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yeah right surely they don't mean I I you know it's like I read that and I thought no this isn't this is not clear at all what is clear is that those who
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do become teachers will incur a stricter judgment I've already alluded to Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17 where it says that
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they will they will give an account but listen to First Corinthians 3 and again um I'm I probably won't get time to actually verbalize it but it is in the
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notes that that moo actually retracts that statement or or not retracts it but contradicts it contradicts it just a few lines later so I don't know what flew through his
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brain at that moment okay that he he said you know but it was clear to him at that moment that moment fortunately a few moments later it wasn't so clear and he came back to uh
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to a more biblical analysis but but listen to what um Paul says about Corinth you know you know the you know the passage
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um I am of Paul I am of Apollos I am of cephas he goes on he says I planted Apollos water but God was causing the growth he says
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he says um now he who plants and he who waters are one but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor okay according to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder
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I laid a foundation and others building upon it upon it and it's all upon the foundation that is laid which is Jesus Christ now here's the point the point now if any man builds upon the
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foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay straw each man's work will become evident for the day we'll show it
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show it well what day the day in second Corinthians 5 when we will all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the Deeds Done In the Flesh
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so he goes on he says it is to be tested or revealed with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work if any man's
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work which he is built upon it remains he shall receive a reward if any man's work is burned up he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as Through Fire okay
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this does not apply to every believer he is talking about Apollos cephas Paul you could put in Timothy Silas
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anyone who builds upon the foundation within the congregation when he goes on to say you are the Temple of the Lord If any man tear down or destroy the temple
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God will destroy him that is not talking about smoking
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is talking about false teaching okay read it in the context this is not about every believer that that's over in chapter six chapter six when every believer is is the Temple of
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the Holy Spirit and there he's talking about fornication that's a completely different topic here he's talking about the congregation the church and the men who take it upon themselves
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to build upon the foundation their work will be judged with fire okay that is a greater judgment
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because instead of of of merely watching their own walk they now are watching the Walk of others
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and directing it so James's warning in chapter three is is incredibly important um it's one that um I don't know I think
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it should probably emblazoned upon the doors of every Seminary every classroom in the Seminary let not many of you become teachers
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it should be I don't know in in a seminary setting when they're their emphasis especially within the conservative reformed seminaries their
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emphasis is in turning out preachers teachers but I do not remember much in the way of
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emphasis on the Judgment that we will incur in other words I don't remember much in the way of counting the costs
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does that make sense I don't know Dave Mark do you remember I don't really remember much in turn in terms of
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terms of I I don't know whether that's maybe a side effect of the fact that Seminary education has been divorced from the church and now focuses mostly on the mechanics
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the nuts and bolts the content of what you preach the method of your preaching Mark no
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was himself a missionary he was he was one of the most pastoral of the professors that I encountered and I would imagine I don't know if he's still living but I I could see him
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spending but but even a class period it should be a regular thing you know it should be a part of um there should be an examination not of of your your
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memorization of the Westminster Confession but of your life and then just again counting the cause
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meeting professors they're just like any college and they're oversaturating the market with market with preachers or whatever and then they're building churches they're collecting
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business well it it there's there's much of that yes there's much of that and I think everybody knows my opinion that that the teaching of theology should be done in the context of the church
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not in the context of of sending men out to a seminary and then um I know I don't I don't think that it's that it's a good thing that that seminaries have happened and I do think
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that just like any organization um it becomes its own purpose it does but but it's insatiable any
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organization especially in the modern world the United States we we measure success by growth student body you know and um and I'll tell you just from the
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standpoint of Milton Academy it is frustrating when you don't have enough students to be able to to offer what you want to offer um but then there's the other danger is
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that when you're successful you become your own purpose and I would say that the Seminary I attended has become its own purpose I don't think it started that way I don't
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think they are many of them start with very Noble intentions but what would have been better I think is if the men who started the Seminary who were primarily pastors had focused
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on doing that in their own churches but they just didn't I don't know I don't know why they they thought they had to have another Seminary so I think you know again I think something uh the
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synapses in in Moo's brain just kind of shut down for a moment and then they pick back up again um and so and when he says you know
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clearly James cannot mean that Christian teachers will reserve them will receive a more severe penalty few indeed will become teachers in that case you know like that's the point that's exactly the
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point James is making that is exactly James's desire if you will understand what you're going to face you will think twice about three times about becoming
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okay but why would in that circumstance anyone become a teacher you know why would anybody accept a position
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that he knows is going to bring upon himself a greater judgment now he could be
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deluded he could have a messiah complex you know he could think that he's got everything under control on his personal side of the ticket
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so he's okay to take on a greater um he could think that I mean self-deception is common ailment among Fallen man
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Fallen man but in reality in James's day there were many reasons to become a teacher at least three one would be honor
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the term Rabbi was a term of Honor it was a term of subservience and and it was a revered where we get the word reverend okay
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um that's where that word came from there was a time when pastors were held in reverence now at all times
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people were able to recognize the false occupants of the office but those who were good at what they did those who were Honorable in what they
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did those who were learned and eloquent they could they would receive a great deal of Honor Even in our Colonial period the pastors and preachers of our land
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were highly regarded and quite a number of them participated in the founding of our government and several of them have their names on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
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well yes in most of History the the priesthood was the were the only educated people around okay so they were already somewhat intimidating to everyone else but honor but honor um there's a there's a quote from the
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um you know it's kind of always fun to um the Jewish mishnah but
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this is uh from about chapter four chapter four Rabbi Eleazar Ben shamua said let the honor of thy disciple be as dear to thee as thine own and as the honor of thy companion
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and the honor of thy companion as the fear of thy teacher and the fear of thy teacher as the fear of Heaven
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yourself view the honor of your disciple as your own honor but you're the teacher and he is to view you as he views and of course the word Heaven is a circumlocution right
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circumlocution right it's God it's God the fear of God um that was a a and it used to be the
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things that I'm saying don't really apply anymore apply anymore and in fact the role of teacher in outside the church just in Academia
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was held once in high esteem much higher than it is now okay another reason why somebody might become a teacher is is to gather a following
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you know you know um ambition as it were and that is how you could do it if you were a good teacher you would gather to yourself disciples yourself disciples look at Jesus he gathered to himself a
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multitude because of his teaching he taught not as the scribes but as one with authority now those multitudes of course scattered as his teaching got
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deeper but nonetheless he still if he had you know if he had chosen that manner of life in order to gather a following he gathered such a following that the leaders considered him a threat
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and sought to remove him so you could say well he was very successful in that regard finally um it paid well
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it actually did even if it was the fact that someone would always open their home to you and make sure you were fed you were often paid in kind with clothing or food or whatever but
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some of the most prosperous people in the ancient world like for example Cicero were speakers they made their livelihood with their
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mouth and they made a very nice living I think he did far better than his ancestors who grew chickpeas okay so it's better to grow it's better to speak than to grow
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chickpeas is the moral of that story but there was a time when being a teacher was not only honorable and not only
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um rewarding but also financially remunerative there's still a lot of money
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not quite the same as it may have used to be there's still a large swath of the population who looks at somebody 's Terror at least there's there there's still some honor
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in it in it but as a profession there's not much money left in it now you'll you'll find every now and then an individual who will make a lot of money with his
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mouth Rush Limbaugh did okay but your average school teacher college professor and Pastor they don't make much I mean you've heard the um
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uh the prayer Lord bless our poor humble pastor he says you keep them humble and we'll keep him poor okay
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it's been a long time since the the pastor the minister was a leading member of society okay um in Jane Austen you know the ministers walk among the
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Gentry right they don't do that anymore they're not they're not among the wealthy nor are our teachers okay so those attributes of teaching one of the things
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that has happened I think we flooded the market yes but I also think that that as time has gone on we've we've all become much more independent in thought and less interested in being taught and
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I think this is going all the way down to the student bodies of our public schools and our universities that that we're we're being taught that we don't need to be taught and that um and and so you know it's
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it's not really an occupation that has an outward an outward um appeal like it did in James's day and I guess I'm saying that just like I said last week about the fact that our
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economy is nothing like James's okay and so how do we apply what James has to say in a situation in a culture that is completely different than the one in
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which James lived okay um you're you're really not the the degree of Honor that people hold a teacher to is nothing like what the
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word Rabbi meant okay Rabbi was was a word almost like the Brit sir in in Britain okay
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it was it was an acknowledgment of a man of earned worth and they were held in you know like Hillel shemai they were held in
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extremely high regard higher than the high priest high priest higher even than the king okay the Learned men so that kind of environment doesn't exist anymore so how
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do we do we apply it today well in this case we apply it by saying it never really mattered how the culture
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treats you treats you what matters is being faithful that's what Paul says in First Corinthians 4 that it is required of a
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steward and he's talking about himself but it's required of a steward to be found faithful found faithful well another reason you would be a
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teacher would be a call I think that's the only real reason and and maybe we live in a time that is almost in a sense
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um naturally weeding out those who are not truly called to be teachers because there isn't much of a living in it there isn't much in the way of of Honor
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in it like there was and there isn't much in the way of a following anymore and that's true for you know you may have a following let's say you're you're a radio talk show
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person and you do have a following is very easy to lose that following you know so everything is much more fluid much more fickle but certainly that's what James is
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saying there's there should be only one reason that you're a teacher and that is because that is your calling and that calling doesn't come from the pay or the honor or The Following comes from God
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which is the same place the Judgment comes from comes from so if you align those two things that's really what James is saying and that's a Timeless lesson Timeless lesson because if if in fact you're living in a
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culture where teaching is an honorable and and remunerative profession you still need the calling to be doing it right
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it right and so James is calling people in that regard in that context to think and count the costs when all the following is gone and all the money is gone and all the honor is gone meaning you're
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dead now comes the judgment and that's what matters and maybe it's easier today than it was then because then because it's pretty hard to go into a teaching
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profession under the illusion that you're going to get rich get rich okay or under the illusion that that people are going to move on the sidewalk and let you pass first you know that
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that doesn't happen Yuri
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yeah yes yes yeah exactly I am definitely speaking of the post-christian western Society but yes I under we all know that you're at Bob Jones to get rich it's like my father said
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my father said the key to financial success is to marry the daughter of a Dairy Farmer who has eight other
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Angela knows I did not marry her for money okay money okay I mean yeah there was there's you don't you don't go into teaching thinking that it's a get rich quick scheme you know it's it's a get poor quick scheme
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as Elders or whoever that we should help young people look for that in those yes
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yes yeah and I've um I couldn't agree with you more that it is crucial that as a congregation we be raising up men to take the mantle of teaching
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when we lay it aside okay because um otherwise the flock will be without Shepherds okay so we have to not you know so
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that's also but that's also the responsibility of the shepherd I mean it is responsibility of the congregation and we've talked about that when we did the polling studies and that is it's it's not all on the shoulder of
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the pastors the pastors that we are each other's keeper we are our Brother's Keeper but it is it is imperative you know that we we don't have anything to offer
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I mean there is a sense in which within a congregation and a denominational setting there is honor and there is um uh fruit for ambition
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if you could rise up within a denominational setting over the years and be and become well respected and well paid
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well paid okay now I've seen that so that's still there but that's mostly in a denominational established denomination the vast majority of churches are small
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the vast majority of churches don't have the wherewithal to pay their Pastor or pastors even a living wage and I think we're going to see as time goes on there's going to be more and
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more multi-vocational pastoring multi-vocational pastoring and I don't think that's necessarily A Bad Thing personally I don't because I don't think the church was well served
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when its leaders and its teachers were well compensated okay I don't I don't think that they should be as the Levites who could no longer
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take the time to teach the people because they had to go out and farm and you know and the prophets castigated the people for basically starving the Levites into silence
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okay so we can't go there um but there's there's still only one reason and that's where things don't really change really change and that is
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um it was never about public honor it was never about compensation Paul talks about how those who who have found that that religion is a means of great gain
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you know well that's never been not the case religion has always been but it's less so now than it was in the ancient world okay and that's probably a good thing
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because it's going to weed out a lot of people have no business in it to begin with but it was never the reason and that's why Paul James is saying what he's saying is you know don't don't if you
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can do anything else do it and that doesn't mean that if you fail at everything else that means you're supposed to be a preacher that's some candidate for Cal uh for spurgeon's
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college assured Spurgeon that he that the call of God must be upon him to be a teacher a preacher because he he tried as a as a school master and failed he tries at the
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store owner and he failed and he tried it several different occupations failed at every one of them and spurgeon's response was response was so God wants a failure to be the shepherd of his sheep okay so no that's
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not the same thing but in in in that in analyzing what we might be able to do rather than teach we should be
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intensely cognizant intensely cognizant of the fact that we will endure a greater judgment that we will have um more to answer for
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than the average Christian one commentator says you know in talking about what what is it the teacher is supposed to do the
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teacher would then be responsible for passing on the various Traditions accurately and thoroughly this is essentially second Timothy 2 verse 2. accurately and thoroughly for their
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legitimate reinterpretation and application and hence to a large degree for the guidance of the community in many aspects of Life intellectual spiritual
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liturgical as well as moral it is important that as aspirants to that position should fit be fit for it
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okay but Paul said in the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to Faithful Men Who will be able to teach others also that is the true Apostolic succession that is the um
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the responsibility as as Abe was mentioning of a congregation if it desires to to survive from one generation to the next okay and it is uh
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a bit of a concern that I've expressed and Marx expressed and that is you know we're not getting younger
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when our when the pastor who was at Fellowship Bible Church when Angela and I first came when he resigned John I've mentioned this story before but when he resigned the first the first two things that the congregation did
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was it looked around for men to serve as elders and it also formed a pastor search committee search committee because it had been the pattern of the church prior to that
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to look outside the church for pastors um that is not the biblical model
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the biblical model is I think very very