Bridled By Christ • James 3:1-12
Teaching begins 20:56
Notes
“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
How do we know if that’s true?
What you say gives you away.
Just like Peter trying to fit in with everyone around a fire, warming themselves while Jesus is inside on trial for His life.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?”
“Nope, never heard of the guy.”
“Well, you know, you are one of them, because your talk gives you away.”
What you say gives you away. Our hearts are desperately wicked and it comes out in the way we talk, to family, to friends, to people, to ourselves. If you don’t believe that, today James will make you a believer.
What that means is that the solution to the way we talk is not ettiquete lessons. What we need is a fundamental change in our lives, that gives us the ability to accept control. Like a horse accepting a bridle, only it works out way better.
We reading in James chapter three.
1. James warns us about what we say in a shocking way. He commands his readers to stop becoming many teachers.
A. The reason for that is, you don’t know what you’re signing up for. You are putting yourself into a position where you will be more strictly judged than if you didn’t put yourself there.
1. Some people think it’s fun to be a teacher in the church because you get to stand up in front of people, tell everybody what to do, tell jokes, and make them laugh.
2. The reality of being a teacher is that you must really know your material. You have to work hard to study. While you are studying hard, your life must agree with your teaching. Otherwise you say what is right, but you You contradict what you teach, and in effect say, it’s not true.
3. Governor of California Gavin Newsom has been very strict in his covid restrictions, closing restaurants and churches, no social gatherings, wear masks in public. Then he is photographed going to an expensive restaurant, $300 per plate, to celebrate a lobbyist’s birthday, 15 people, no social distancing, no masks. Is this a severe pandemic that requires extreme sacrifices from everyone if we are going to beat this? His actions say there’s no pandemic on. He doesn’t believe it.
4. But that’s the government. Teachers in the church are teaching the word of God. If their lives don’t embody this teaching, then it looks like they don’t believe it. If they don’t believe it, why should anyone else?
B. We all stumble in many ways. James includes himself in that statement. We are aware of our sins, how we fall short of the glory of God even now.
C. It’s one thing to be shamed and embarrassed before men, it’s another to stand before God. He knows everything exactly. What will we say before Him if we taught one thing but didn’t live it out?
D. What that is, is holding to a form of godliness but denying its power over us.
E. James calls that being bridled. That’s how you control a horse that’s bigger and stronger than you. You work at making the horse accept control from outside him. You put a bit in its mouth and strap a harness on him and you teach the horse I am the boss. You accept orders from me.
F. To become a teacher you must learn to accept control from outside you so that you will be obedient to Jesus. That’s why you would become a teacher in the first place, knowing that you will have a stricter judgment. It’s because you obey Jesus. That makes you humble yourself before Jesus and ask, “How does my salvation work? Teach me, so I can teach others.” Our humility increases all the time because we realise, we are not what we should be. We need to be saved. Therefore our teaching reflects the grace given to us.
G. Grace makes us perfect in Christ, filled with Christ, humble in Christ. We all need to be bridled by Christ, we need to accept His control.
2. The proof that everyone needs to accept control of their lives by Jesus is what we say — how we use our tongues.
A. The principle here is that a little tiny thing affects big things and great powers.
B. Horses are huge and powerful animals. But you put a bridle on a horse and Little You can tell the huge horse where you want to go.
C. Another example is ships. They are huge, heavy. They require high winds and sail in powerful, rough waters. Paul was shipwrecked in a ship containing a full cargo of wheat and 276 persons. Think of how big that ship had to be. And yet, it’s a comparatively small rudder turned by one man that directs the ship, the cargo, and the lives.
D. Another example is a small fire that burns down a whole forest. A little fire when it is controlled is a servant, but a big fire out of control is completely destructive.
3. The tongue, a small part of our body, is not accepting control, it is out of control.
A. The tongue boasts of great things.
1. The true authority on your worth is God. He knows absolutely. It’s not what you say, what others say.
2. When you boast you express of higher opinion of yourself than you have authority to say. You make yourself the authority as to how valuable you are, and it’s not accurate. You don’t have a true idea of your capabilities and value and worth.
3. The truth is,we are not as great and good as we think we are.
B. But we rebel against that, and there is the conflict.
C. The tongue is a world of iniquity and defiles the whole body because it is set on fire by hell. In other words, this is the attitude of Satan.
1. He threw off what he considers to be a yoke of service to God. I’m not going to be bridled under the control of God! In Isaiah 14 he says I will ascend and set my throne above the stars of heaven. I will be like the Most High God. I’ll control everyone but I won’t be under control.
2. Do you realise that is Governor Gavin Newson’s attitude? I’ll make everyone else do this, but I will not accept control!
3. This hypocrisy is not acceptable in the world. It is not acceptable in the church.
4. But this is a blanket condemnation that is true of each one of us.
A. Animals are lower orders of life than humans. We are above them. And yet they can be tamed to accept control from outside. But no one can tame the tongue, and therefore, no one can tame the heart. We will not accept control from outside us.
B. That is what unruly means: not readily ruled, given to resisting authority or another’s control.
C. And when we resist the control of Jesus we kill and destroy around us.
1. Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
2. Love gives life. 1 Corinthians 13:7-8 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
3. Instead of giving life, we take life by what we say. The poison of asps is under our lips, full of deadly poison. We fight, we argue, we defend and attack. We criticise, we tear down. We lie to one another. We don’t encourage. Sometimes we don’t say anything when we should say something. Sometimes we are quiet but inside we are cursing others. Listen to yourself the next time you drive somewhere. You curse the other drivers just as they curse you.
D. This is an absolute contradiction, says James.
1. We bless our God and Father and we turn around and curse men created in His image. We sound spiritual but our actions show that we are not spiritual.
2. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. That’s like a fountain putting forth good water and bad water. We do not say the fountain is half good. We say the fountain is contaminated.
E. Therefore what we say and think reveals what we are.
1. You don’t expect to get olives off a fig tree or figs off a grapevine. A fig tree will produce only figs. It is the nature of the tree to produce that kind of fruit.
2. The principle is what Jesus said: you shall know them by their fruits. Your speaking gives you away as to what kind of person you are.
5. Don’t you think it’s striking that James does not tell us what to do?
A. This is the part of the teaching where you would expect, “Now that you are aware of how wrong you are, this is what you do about it.”
B. But James just leaves us all there to think about this: I naturally do not accept control from outside me. What I say is the proof of it. We can all read these scriptures and say, that is me.
C. What it proves is that you don’t need etiquette lessons on how one speaks politely. You need a more fundamental, radical solution if you are ever to speak rightly. You need a new nature.
D. And that is not possible with men. Jeremiah 17:1 The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus; with a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars. You’re not going to change something engraved on stone hearts. Those ancient inscriptions are still readable thousands of years later. Nothing will erase what is written.
E. The great thing about the new covenant is that it gives us new hearts. Ezekiel 36:26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
F. There is the new source of control, the Holy Spirit. He will cause us to walk in God’s statutes. There’s the bridling of our whole body. Galatians 5:22-26 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
G. If you are a believer in Jesus and you see that great contradiction in your life, that you resist the control of God, that’s the Holy Spirit. Your being convicted of this is not an accident. The Holy Spirit is breaking you, bridling you, so that you accept His control. He will lead you to love people around you in all that you do. You will see it when you speak with grace, when you love with your words, when you stop reacting quickly and you stop and pray, what should I say here? What is going to bless You, Lord?
Let’s pray. Holy Spirit, the things I say and think prove that I need You to lead me and guide me. Be my Lord and my Saviour. Control me, bridle me, just as You promised.