Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt
(Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Pastor: Colin Maxwell. Email: colin.maxwell@fpcmission.org
JAMES 3:1-18 TEXT: v9b [THEREWITH BLESS WE GOD, EVEN THE FATHER]
mp3 recording here
Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
You will remember that we started this message and that the first point quickly became the whole message - Reminder:
1) WE ARE TO BLESS GOD WITH OUR TONGUE SO MANY WAYS:
Let me list them again for you:
[i] When we bless God purely for Who He is
[ii] When we bless God for what He has done for us
[iii] When we encourage others to do so
[iv] When we pray/supplicate
[v] When we proclaim the gospel
[vi] When we warn sinners - the whole counsel of God brings blessing on God
[vii] When we encourage/strengthen the saints by the things we say
Certainly there is enough scope for us here to keep us busy!
Here is fuel for our prayers - fuel for our everyday lives
We live in an age/country of free speech
We do not need to fear before we open our mouths
Society is still reasonably tolerant - Bless God with your mouth
James didn't argue the point - He stated it as if it were the done thing
Let's continue:
2) WE ARE TO BLESS GOD WITH OUR TONGUE AT SO MANY TIMES:
A/ David named three distinct seasons:
Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. (Psalm 55:17)
He also uses the "all the day long" idea too:
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day. (Psalm 71:8)
And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. (Psalm 35:28)
Objection: How can you reconcile these two forms/speech? Surely the "all day long" envelopes the "evening/morning and noon" part?
Answer:- One refers to
an attitude ("all day long" ) while the specified times refer to the
action of specifically retiring to the closet
Daniel was another man who "daily prayed three times" (6:10) and yet he would have been a praying man, often in the attitude of prayer
Seen again in the use of the term "continually"
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. (Psalm 34:1)
Let all those that seek thee rejoice
and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually,
The LORD be magnified. (Psalm 40:16)
B/ But it also refers to many different kinds of times
Not measured by the clock, but by the circumstances
[i] We are to bless God in the days of prosperity
This is relatively easy…if God has prospered you, then bless His name in
a public fashion and thank Him for His mercies towards you
Help you to do so when you remember: they are all totally undeserved
We deserve nothing, yet God gives us the very best and gives it in such a way as to calculate the best advantage for us
This is seen by implication: Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? (Lamentations 3:39)
No room for complaint - so how gracious is God not only to refrain from
punishing us, but instead not giving us of the finest/wheat, but
filling us with the same? (Psalm 147:14)
Danger: It is so easy to forget to thank Him when He prospers us:
But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked:
thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with
fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the
Rock of his salvation. (Deuteronomy 32:15)
Think of the ten lepers who received the healing (prosperity) and yet only one (A Samaritan) returned to give the Lord thanks
It was not only noticed but recorded in the word of God
[ii] Harder again is to bless the Lord in the days of adversity
Yet, can we withhold our blessing/God in such a day?
Why do we withhold our blessing from certain people at all?
Answer:- We judge them to be guilty of wickedness and/or folly
To bless the wicked is to partake with them in their deed:
We cannot give them the nod of approval or speak encouragingly of what they are doing - to do so is to be in agreement
If we withhold our blessing from God when He has allowed or even sent
affliction upon us is to indicate that His deed (in this incidence) was
evil
Did it lack wisdom? Was it unjust? Does it violate the word/God?
Obviously not - We know that all that God does is marked by wisdom and love and justice and holiness etc., - every thing is pure
Even though it hurts us, we are still required to bless God
It is part of Romans 8:28 "All things work together for good…"
You don't have to understand…but you do have to accept
You might not understand each/every dealing…but you understand
the basic character/God and faith lays hold on this and accepts
When Job lost his entire family and his wealth in one day, it says:
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle,
and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
What did he say? The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed
be the name of the LORD. (1:20-21)
No one says it is easy to do so
Neither should such actions flow from a Stoical spirit (which is devoid
of faith in God and is worthless) but such actions should flow from a
heart that is submitted to the will/God no matter where it should lead
Not without reason that we read in Isaiah 24:15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
3) WE ARE TO BLESS GOD WITH OUR TONGUE TO THE EXCLUSION OF OTHER ACTIVITIES:
A/ This is what James is getting at in these verses and complains in
our text: the praising/God and the cursing/men escaped the same lips
The praising of God therefore was impure
Obviously we cannot separate these things, otherwise the complaint
would be redundant/unnecessary and its inclusion shows that it is not
so
B/ It is wrong to curse men for several reasons:
[i] They are made in the similitude of God (text) Cp: Genesis 1:26-27
True, sin has defaced this image, but it still there
Man is still seen to have a spiritual side, separating him from/animals
What does God (who praises we sing etc.,) tell us about our neighbour?
Does He not wisely tell us to love our neighbour?
Who is our neighbour? Not only the people/God, but those heretical Samaritans as well
Can we love our neighbour as ourselves and curse them?
We might curse their sins and we ought to do so:
Cursed be their anger, for it was
fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob,
and scatter them in Israel. (Genesis 49:7) but not them
Objection: Does not Peter curse men in 2 Peter 2:14 "cursed children"
Again: A whole list of people pronounced were cursed in Deuteronomy 28 "Cursed be he that setteth light by father/mother etc.,"
Answer: It is God who rightly curses here and He can curse whom He will, bounded only by His own attributes of justice/holiness etc.,
James is not speaking of such cursing, but of man originated
cursing, whereby we curse those who get in our way and because we
cannot bring ourselves to forgive or tolerate them
The two ought not to be confused - One is righteous/Other: Sinful
[ii] Such cursing has no profit at all, but is actually unprofitable:
It ought not so to be (v10) because it is positively sinful
It is an example of the hellish fire etc., of verse 6
It is illustrated /passage by the bitter water than none can drink (v11)
Reminds us of: COI came to Marah and they could not drink
Not only be worthless to drink, but dangerous and deadly
Consider the effect it has upon the one cursed and the one cursing
Shimei cursed David and paid an awful price (1 Kings 2:9)
[iii] It is spiritually harmful because it is a perversion
Nature itself does not allow that a fig tree should bear olives or the vine to yield figs or the fountain yielding
Neither does the new nature make allowances for a tongue to bless God in sweetness and yet curse men in bitterness
C/ The answer of course is not to refrain from blessing God, but to
refrain from cursing men - putting the bridle upon the lips (Psalm
39:1)
4) SUCH PURE BLESSING/GOD WILL BRING GREAT ADVANTAGE TO US:
A/ God honours those who honour Him (1 Samuel 2:30) Such
honouring need not be measured by outward prosperity, but by something
immeasurably better: Blessing/God that maketh rich (Proverbs 10:22)
It honours God when we praise/bless His name: Psalm 50:23
B/ May be seen in the language which God uses of praising His name:
Illustrated by drinking "sweet water" (v11)
[i] Essential for survival:
The people thirsted there for water;
and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that
thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and
our cattle with thirst? (Exodus 17:3)
Where we fail to praise God, there will develop a spirit of self
sufficiency in days of abundance and bitterness in adversity
[ii] Unbeatable for pleasure:
Especially when labouring under the noon day sun
This is how salvation is portrayed in the Bible:
But whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. (John 4:14)
This is how the indwelling of the Spirit/God is portrayed in the Bible:
He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him
should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that
Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:38-39)
This is how the pleasures of Heaven itself are portrayed:
And he shewed me a pure river of
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God
and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1)
C/ When we praise/bless God, then we attract others to Him
Probably the best advert for Christ - it's worth seen in 1 Peter 3:1
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection
to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may
without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
Not that folk are born again without the word (1 Peter 1:23) but that
effects/word in the lifestyle/wife was used rather than the preaching
Part of this "conversation" is the praising of God in all circumstances
So what are we going to do with our lips Only the wicked say:
With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? (Psalm 12:4)
Not so, the Christian, who ever says:
Let the words of my mouth, and
the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my
strength, and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:4)
THE END