Watch What we Say

Take your Bible and turn with me to the book of James, James chapter 5. And you know that we are getting close to the end of the book and it's obvious now we're getting close to the end of the book because James takes a turn in his teaching. And we're going to see that as we get into these next verses that James is nearing the end of this wonderful letter. It's a very practical letter.

And the series of, the title of the series is being "Good Works Flow from Good Faith." This is the practical, easy to understand book of James and as it is digested and put into our lives, good works will flow from our lives and the lost world will see that good faith, that true Bible faith as we're living that what we have learned. Now in introduction to the message this morning, I want to take us back in time a little to an event in our history that some of you will remember, probably most of you who are adults will remember.

But on December the 19th of 1998, Bill Clinton, who was our 42nd president of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives. President Clinton was impeached on two charges. One of perjury and the other obstruction of justice. Now the president was accused of breaking the law, now listen, by lying under oath, surrounding the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Now there were some other scandals going on in his life and in his life that affected the presidency at that time, but we all remember the Monica Lewinsky sexual scandal.

Now in an effort to kind of dissolve these accusations of sexual immorality, almost a year earlier on January the 26th, the president standing with his wife Hillary and the vice president, Al Gore, he gave a news conference and the president declared, and this is the exact words I quote, "But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never.

These allegations are false and I need to go back to work for the American people." Now of course we know that all of these things were lies. We know that he stood before the camera and even wagged his finger and did what? He lied. The president lied under oath, the president lied to his family, the president lied to those who were in office, and the president lied to the American people. And not only did he lie, he swore an oath to tell the truth when he lied. Did he not? Now in our passage this morning, James is dealing with oaths. James is dealing with speech.

Now you could say that he is calling Christians to purity of speech, honesty in speech, but he deals with this issue of oaths that we might not be familiar with, that we're very familiar with the readers of this book, this little practical book of James. Now in the remaining verses right here in the book, James takes a different approach in his teaching. He goes into quick, short messages. It's almost like he's trying to squeeze in truth which he just can't leave out. It's almost like he can't wind the book down and he just gives thought after thought, truth after truth, lesson after lesson.

These quick truths or corrections relate to everyday life and they would have been very easily understood by the readers of the book. Now verse 12 starts these quick, short messages. Now the title of the message this morning is "Watch What We Say." And that's really what James is saying to these readers. He's saying, "You've got to watch what you say and you've got to watch what you say and you've got to watch how you say it." We're going to be just in verse 12 this morning and there's a lot of truth in this verse.

What I mean by a lot of truth, we're going to break this verse down into four parts and we're going to see what James is trying to communicate to the readers of this book as he's starting to wind down. Now let's look at the verse, verse 12. He says, "But above all my brethren are my brothers. Do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no your no so that you may not fall under judgment." Now that's a real short verse but yet there is so much there and the longer I studied it the more I realize we needed to take a little more time because really at the end of the message we're going to see that there is one main truth that we must take home with us to apply to our everyday life.

See good preaching will always enable you to take truth home that can be assimilated into our everyday life and into our behavior. It's not just truth to be stored into the mind and this is very practical, very short, but yet very packed with truth. Now you see our information on the screen and I want you to notice truth number one, the high calling, the high calling. This is found in what I call verse 12a, the first portion of the verse. What does he say? "But above all my brethren." James has been giving, as we have seen, some very serious exhortations in the previous verses.

Remember we started in verse 7 and we went on down to verse 11 and he was talking about perseverance in trial but not just perseverance in trial but as it related to other people. That was very serious because of contention in their lives and even contention in the church. But now I want you to see James seems to almost raise the bar. You might say how can he raise the bar and become even more serious? But that's what he does right here. This word "but" right here and every translation uses it. It denotes a transition. It denotes a transition from the previous verses, verses 7 through 11.

But I want you to notice we're going to see this is a high, almost a higher calling. First I want us to notice this word "above all." This word "above all" or these words "above all." Every translation communicates the same thing. Every now and then I refer to the amplified version and I like how it reads. It says "above all" and then parentheses "things." Now the King James is very similar to that. What are we seeing here? James is setting this teaching apart. This is a command that demands attention. What do we see here? All along he's been teaching.

All along he's been given truth after truth, test after test, but now he gets to a very practical teaching here and he says "but above all." In other words he's saying you really, really need to get this. This is part of that high calling. But another part of that high calling is second. He says "above all brothers." Isn't that right? Again, James is addressing the Christians in these churches. If you go back up a few verses you'll see verse 7, who is he talking to? He's talking to brothers. He says "brethren." Then on down to verse 9, then on down to verse 10, it's brethren, brethren, brothers, brothers. Who is he talking to?

He's talking to Christians. So what do we see here with this high calling? James is simply raising the bar with the Christians that are in these churches. He's been giving them some very serious truth, but I think maybe what James could be doing, I'm trying to get into his mind, he's getting into short practical messages, but these are things that are desperately needed and he sees it in their life and he raises the bar and he says "but listen, above all these things that I've been teaching you, you really need to get this." So this is a high calling. Things that they needed to hear, this was addressed to the brothers.

Now you remember when I introduced this message and I talked about, or the title of the message was "The Who of the Book of James" and I talked about how some people in church history have criticized the Book of James because it was very practical and not very theological. But yet we're going to see that there is a lot of deep truth right here in the Scriptures that relate to other portion of the Word of God. And let me show you what I mean. This is very similar to the teaching that we see in Proverbs. Think about this, those of you who are Bible literate in the Book of Proverbs, it'll be one verse that's power packed and very practical.

It'll be one verse that addresses men, addresses women, that addresses an issue in life, that deals with wisdom, something of that nature, very practical, very easy to understand, one verse, boom, there it is. And that's exactly what James is doing. James, he is raising the bar, he's saying, "Listen, above all, you better get this, brothers and sisters." See, this reminds me, isn't this what we looked at the last time we met on a Sunday night out of the Book of 2 Timothy?

That we must remember as we were in verse 14, we must hold on to the teaching that we get, we must not let teaching come in one ear and go out the other, we must retain all that we can get. It is so, so important for you, for me, and every now and then I get reminded of the importance of the Word of God. You need to be under the Word of God. You need to be studying the Word of God. You need to be taking notes to what we're looking at. You need to be going back and listening to the messages and reading the text and let it assimilate into your mind and your heart. Why?

Because what we're seeing is James is saying, "I've been giving you all this stuff, but above all, you really need to get this." That's why sometimes when I know that we're providentially hindered, but sometimes when I'm delivering a message and I know that there are certain things you're dealing with, I know that you need this. There are certain times when I'm studying this, I know that I need it. There are certain times my wife will say, "I really needed that. You will text me. You'll call me. I needed that." That's exactly what James is saying. He says, "Listen, you need this.

This is a high calling." Second, I want you to see our truth number two. I want us to see the prohibition. This is really getting into the lesson right here. I call it the prohibition. Look at verse 12, "But above all, my brethren," he says, "do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath." Now, there is usually confusion here as to what James is referring to. Some right here automatically think that James is referring to filthy speech or dirty speech or we might say four-letter words, things like that.

But James is not really talking about filthy speech, but what James is talking about, James is talking about the act of making an oath. We might not be as familiar with that in our culture. It might not be a part of our culture like it was in Jesus' day and in James' day, but we're going to see this. As a matter of fact, some of my study this week, I ran across some information given by John MacArthur that helped me understand, now listen, the context because context is so very important.

We cannot read the Word of God in light of our context, our set of circumstances, but we always start with the context in which it was written and given, and then we move to our context our day. But see, in James' day, the Jews, they had developed a complex system of swearing oaths, the influences of which came into the Christians right here. In other words, the Christians had been influenced by Judaism, and Judaism had a very complex system of swearing oaths when they were trying to communicate truth. And listen, James wrote against this system, this habit, this way of speaking of always taking an oath, swearing an oath, taking an oath.

Now, some of you who are Bible literate will understand that this goes way back to the Old Testament. Let me give you some examples. You don't have to turn there. As a matter of fact, I'd prefer that you just write down the Scripture references. But way back in the book of Joshua, we see that Joshua had sent spies into the Promised Land, and those spies went into the house of Rahab the harlot, the prostitute, and yet we know that she was saved, she believed in the one true God by grace through faith, but yet in that process they were going to destroy the city, but yet she was not destroyed nor was her family, but in Joshua, the book of Joshua chapter 2, we see that they took an oath.

And notice what they said. She says to the spies, "Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you will also deal kindly with my father's household." And what does she say? "And give me a pledge of truth." This is none other than an oath. Also, we see this take place in the life of David. David was a man after God's own heart, and we see that David took an oath with Jonathan. Now, Jonathan was Saul's son, and they loved each other like brothers. And in 1 Samuel chapter 20, starting in verse 12, what do we see? "Then Jonathan said to David, 'The Lord the God of Israel, be witness.

When I have sounded out my father by this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is a good feeling toward David, shall I not then send to you and to make it known to you?'" What is this referred to? This is that contention between Saul, Jonathan's father, and David, but yet Jonathan sided with David because David was right with God, and what do we see here? We see an oath. Now, what are we looking at right here? In the Old Testament times, they did not use written contracts like we do today. People were bound together by an oath that was taken. This was binding much like a contract would be binding to you, to me, and us today.

This was part of their culture, and listen, it was part of their legal system. But I also now want us to journey into the New Testament. Well, you might say, "Well, brother Chris, we've been into the New Testament in dealing with James." Yes, we're getting closer to James and closer to that problem, and I want you to notice what Jesus says to the religious leaders in his day about what? About these oaths. Matthew chapter 23, starting in verse 16. We know chapter 23 because this is this long series of woes, these pronouncements of judgment by Jesus to the religious leaders, and notice what he says starting in verse 16.

He says, "Woe to you!" That was a harsh statement. "Blind guides who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the gold in the temple, of the temple, he is obligated. You fools and blind men, which is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold. And whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated. You blind men, which is more important, the offering on the altar, that sanctifies the offering.

Therefore, he who swears by the altar, swears by the altar and everything on it, and he who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by him who dwells in it, and he who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by whom who sits on it." What is Jesus dealing with right here in Matthew 23? There was this terrible, terrible abuse of what? This oath, these oaths and this oath system. They were throwing this around. Now, if you read the book of James, it's almost like James right here in verse 12 contradicts the Old Testament. Now, in the Old Testament, we see examples.

I've given you a couple, but I want you to notice, those examples that I've given you, and there are so many more, men like Abraham and other men of God, swore oaths. But what we see in the Old Testament was God's people doing God's work and making vows or swearing, now listen, to God first and man second. That's what went on with the spies and Rahab. She was asking them to promise before God and to her as they were a part of the work of God. That's what was going on with David. That's what went on with Abraham. It was men and women of God swearing or making an oath first to God, then to men, as they were a part of the work of God.

So the sin and the situation can be found right here in Matthew 23. In Jesus' day, the religious leaders were abusing the Old Testament contractual practice. What they had done is they had carried this practice over into their everyday lives and they were just throwing it around. They would just say, "Well, I swear to you by the goal to send a temple." "Well, I swear to you by the temple itself." And what Jesus says right there in verse 22 is, is when you use all of the things of God and you bring that into this bad habit, all you're doing is dragging God right into your mess. And he rebukes them.

So what we see here is James says, he says, "I forbid you to do what you have seen done all of your life." This is part of the culture in Jesus' day. This is part of Jewish culture. Remember these were Jewish Christians and this had followed them into their everyday lives and what were they doing? They were throwing these oaths around. "Well, I swear to you by this. I swear to you by this. I make an oath to this and I make an oath to that." And what were they doing? They were sinning just like the religious leaders that Jesus rebuked. Now, what do we need to learn from this passage? What does it mean to you? What does it mean to me?

See, this can easily be missed. Here's a question. Is James forbidding all oaths or all swearing? Remember, they had abused the Old Testament system. You might not know it, but we take oaths today. Some of you know, I mentioned it last Sunday, that my wife and I just celebrated our anniversary. November the 23rd marked 18 years. The joke around my anniversary is, as many of you know it by now, I was terribly sick on my wedding day. I had food poisoning as well as two of my groomsmen and I vaguely remember my marriage ceremony.

I remember when my wife, then fiction of E-wife, stood at the back of the church and that's that image that we're all supposed to remember. Isn't that right, guys? I remember when she stood there, I can remember in my mind thinking I am supposed to remember this, but I went blank. I was just drugged up because I was so sick. But on that day, drugs are no drugs. I took an oath. I swore an allegiance. It's called a covenant. And I promised God first and Christi second and I promised the whole world third, what? That I would give my whole life to her. She would give my whole life to me.

And we were entering into holy matrimony, Christian matrimony, the way God intended it. That's an oath. We do that in our judicial system, do we not? When men, when women stand in a courtroom and they take their right hand and they put it on the Bible and what do they do? They swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now, here's my question. Are those two examples contradicting what James is teaching? No, it's not because what James is saying is quit abusing it. Quit doing all that. Quit doing what you've been doing all of your life. And there are times in our culture when we must take an oath, what? For the truth.

And see, that's what got our president, Bill Clinton, in trouble. It's because he didn't tell the truth and he didn't tell the truth under oath. See, that's the point. We don't make frivolous oaths. We don't just throw this word. You know, it gets done more than we know. You hear people say, well, I promised to God. You know, I can remember correction I got as a child, but I remember one time we were in the garage of my parents' house and I threw that out there. I told my dad, I said, I promised to God and boy, I got scolded. You hear people say, especially on television, well, I swear to God. That's all that is.

They throw that word I swear around. See, that goes on in our culture more than you know. What is James saying? Quit throwing that around. Number three, I want you to see the standard. The standard. Go back to the verse. But above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath. But notice what he says. But let your yes be yes and your no be no. Now, previously, James has commanded them how not to speak. Now, James is commanding them how to speak. He's giving them the negative and now he's giving them the positive. And I want you to notice this is some observation of mine out of this portion of the verse.

Go back to the verse. He says, but let your yes be yes and your no be no. I want you to notice some things first. I want you to notice the standard is straight. I mean, that's just straight right down the line in it. He just says, let's yes be yes and your no be no. Second, I want you to notice that the standard is simplistic. I mean, if you can't understand that you've got to be half asleep. And I write the standard is straight. The standard is simplistic, but also notice this standard that he gives is truthful. Just let your yes be yes, let your no be no. Even a small child could understand that. Isn't that right?

It's straight, it's simplistic, and it's truthful. He's telling them how he wants them to speak now. Let's see. I want you to notice you might not realize it. Realize that James is really getting biblical here. James is truly, truly being biblical. I don't necessarily want you to turn there, but write this down. But James is doing nothing but quoting Jesus for those of you or those of anyone who would be critical of the book of James. James is quoting Christ right here. And notice what Matthew chapter five verse 37 says, Jesus says, but let your statement be yes, yes or no, no. And anything beyond these things beyond this is evil.

What is he talking about? He's talking about these vows. Let me go back. Verse 33 again, you have heard the ancients were told you shall not make a false vow. There's that vowel thing again that was prevalent in the old Testament. And what does he do? Jesus goes on down and he says, just let your yes, be yes. And you know, be no. So what do we see? Excuse me. Jesus or excuse me, James is far more biblical in this very simplistic, straightforward, truthful way of speaking. James is only mimicking what Jesus taught. Jesus is saying that Christians should be people of their word and with so much integrity.

Now listen, that a simple yes and a no will do. You get that? That's all Jesus is saying. And just like in Jesus day, Jay James was facing the very same problem. Now listen, Christians, Christians who just needed to let their yes, be yes. And the no be no. And see for you, for me, what we need to do is we need to check our speech. We need to check the way we talk. We need to check our speech at our home. We need to check our speech in our workplace. We need to check our speech with our spouse. We need to check our speech with our, our children. We need to check our speech in our business dealings.

You know, sometimes we'll have speech in church business that's kind of different than secular business. Isn't that right? You know, I've always heard those stories of those men who led the church. They were deacons in the church and yet they did church business one way and they did their other business out there in the world. Another way. And see what James is saying is there is a standard of speech that applies everywhere and in all times. Just let your yes, be yes. And your no be no speech of integrity, speech of truth, speech of honesty.

I ran across a great example of this really in my everyday life and a place in which you might not know. I know that most of you know that we're in the process of moving. We're in the process of buying a new home and in the process of selling our home. This has been something that we've been praying over for quite some time and I'm thankful God's kind of got the ball rolling. But it happened to be that I'm selling my house, my owner, and I'm buying a house, my owner.

I have a realtor that I use and I've looked at a lot of different houses and properties, but it just so happened that somebody contacted me to buy my house and I'm doing it by owner and I contacted someone that had a piece of property in a home for sale and we're doing that by owner. And that's an interesting thing altogether. But I ran across this yes, be yes, a no, be no, and a strange place. I was sitting down with my banker and I was dealing with the contract.

See, I have a contract that is a legal document that I got from my lawyer and it's several pages long and it's own legal paper and it has things that you need a lawyer for to interpret. But you know what my banker said? My banker said, I know you and the kind of person you are and I know the person that's selling the property and the kind of person they are, all you got to do is type out and write out a simple contract that just explains the transaction and what goes with it and that's enough. You know what that banker was saying? Your yes will be yes and your no will be no and their yes will be yes and their no will be no.

It's straightforward. It's down the line. There's no dog and pony show. There's no bait and switch. There's nothing to be shady about. The figure has been agreed on. The hand has been shaken. It's very simplistic and all she needed was a piece of paper to put in her file to initiate that process in the banking system. And I thought about that this week. That is an extremely good example. My banker looked at me and said, your yes is good and your no is good and so is theirs. You see? And we should be that type of people.

It does not matter if we're at the deer camp, if we're at the fish camp, if we're in the churchyard, in the church pew, if we're in our home, if we're dealing with people about money, it does not matter. Our yes should be yes and our no should be no. And we should not have to drag up some cheap unbiblical oath to make it stick. I saw James the same. Quit doing this terrible practice. That's the prohibition and then that is the standard. And then I want you to notice number four, the high motivation. So we had the high standard and now we're going to end with a high motivation. Go back to the verse.

He says, but above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. Now notice, but let your yes be yes and your no be no. He's quoting Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Now he says, so that you may not fall under judgment. Now James closes this quick, some would call a mini sermon and he's trying to motivate them. Now let me explain what I mean. He's trying to motivate them with the judgment. Now get this towards who they really are. This is another test, but there's some confusion here because James is not saying to them, James, James is not saying to them, you will be judged like the lost.

Now the key word here is judgment. This word judgment is the same word exactly that is used in chapter two, verse 13. You don't have to turn there, but listen to what James says for judgment will be merciless to the one who is shown no mercy. That word judgment in chapter two, verse two, verse 13 is dealing with the lost. And we see this word, this word judgment in the original language. It is used all throughout the new Testament and it is always used in relation to the judgment for the lost. And some of my reading this week, I ran across something that John MacArthur says.

He says that this word, this exact word is used more than 25 times in the new testament and the idea is passing judgment on the lost. I give you some specific examples. Paul used this exact word in God's judgment to lost sinners in second Thessalonians one, five and first Timothy five, 24 Peter used this word in reference to sinners being judged. And second Peter two, nine, verse 11 and chapter three, verse seven, the book of Jude uses this word in relating to lost sinners being judged. First John uses this word and the context is the lost being judged. So what is James saying here? What is James teaching? What does this mean?

This word judgment go back to the verse, but above all my brother and he's talking to Christians, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes, your no, your no, so that you may not fall in a judgment. What James is doing is he is motivating the Christians, but yet he is testing those who are not see there were always that element in the life of this church. These churches, there was the lost element there. And we've already seen that.

Remember the unrighteous needs of the unrighteous law, a rich, remember that those were the laws who were within the life of the church believers are never judged the way the lost are. No, don't ever make that mistake. Again, this is another test. He is addressing believers, but yet there are some of those in the life of the church who are false converts and see for us as believers, it is a high motivation. But see for the loss is a test because listen, a test. Now listen, it always proves people for who they are. And that's all he is doing because what he is saying here is there are some of you in the life of the church.

You will not quit making notes. You will not quit telling lies because your father is the father of all eyes and your speech is nothing more than a test. And you always have, and you always will continue to do what? Utter lies, utter falsehoods, utter false oaths. You will just open your mouth and prove who you are. The seat of the Christians. What he's saying is you need to clean your act up. See, for me, I thought about now this is for us Christians. I thought about the three places of judgment that should motivate us. Now get this. Yes, we will give an account before God.

The word of God says that we will stand at the judgment seat of Christ. That is for the believers. That is for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we will give an account for every deed done in the body, every word spoken. We are not judged like the lost, but we are rewarded. And yet there are some, you know what, you will give an account. We will give an account for what we have done and that should motivate us. But you know, second, we are also judged by others in this life. Aren't we not? When we turn our backs and when we walk away, don't do not the people that we come in contact with judge us by what we say.

But this might seem strange, but we are also judged by ourselves. What I mean is for those of us who are believers in Christ Jesus, we know how we speak. We know how we talk. And yet sometimes we need the Holy Spirit to illuminate that to us. But yet when we lay our head down on our pillows at night, we know how we speak. And in that, that is judgment. And what I'm showing you is in every different places and all the different places in life. Yes, we will stand before God, but we are judged in this world. Look by other people and even our own conscience that God has given us. And this is for us who are Christians. It's a high motivation.

Now, as I begin to close, I want you to remember what James is doing. James is giving simplistic, basic messages. These are eight verses beginning right here in verse 12. And James is dealing with serious, serious truth. I'll tell you two stories which teach the seriousness of this issue. And I think it'll help us. I remember when I was in a particular workplace, I worked with all types. Some said they were Christian and some did not. And I never forget I worked with a man and I'll just call him John. And John had a bad habit. He was lying.

And you know, he could talk about church and he could talk about the revival meeting and he could talk about the sermon that the preacher preached. He would talk about that. As a matter of fact, he he at different times of the year, different holidays, he would go visit friends at different types of churches. And he was proud of that. And he would talk about that. But you know, when he was away, you know what everybody called John? They called him lying John. Because they always said John lied because you know what John always lied. He lied about where he bought his tools. He lied about what he did on that job.

He lied about how he saw this and how he saw that. He lied about his personal life. He lied about this. He lied about that. And he could talk that Christian talk. But yet when he walked off, everybody always called him lying John. And it didn't matter how many times he said, I promise. But I'm reminded of another man that I know. He's a preacher. And everybody calls him a liar too. Because you know what? He lies in business deals about cars. He lies in small business deals when he sells a gun or buys a gun. He lies about church business. He lies about church problems. And you know what his own family members will say? He's a liar.

See, everybody hears what we say. Big and little. Business hobbies on the church steps. Everybody hears what we say and how we say it. And you know what James is saying? James is saying to this congregation, as he's starting to wind down, he's saying, you've got to watch what you say. And look, even these quasi-religious ways of trying to re-enterate the truth are sinful. He's saying, you've got to watch what you say. And the kind of people that you've got to be, your yes means yes and your no means no. And all you've got to do is say it one time.

And you know, if you were to get honest with yourself, maybe honest with your spouse, you might have to look long and hard to find that kind of person. But when you do, they will look you in the eye and they will tell you the truth and they will shake your hand. And when they walk away, you know it is the truth. And our southern way of saying it, when they say something, when they walk away, you'll say, yep, that's the gospel. Why? Because you know the kind of person they are and they're hard to find. And that's all James is saying. This is the kind of people we must be. So what is the title of the message? Watch what we say. It does matter.

It really matters. Let's pray.