Damage Control
Notes
Transcript
Findlay flood
Blanchard river - it needed to be dredged - dirt and debris became so thick in this area of the river that it would easily flood
The solution was to dredge the river
The storm came, the rain fell, the water levels rose, the banks of the river could not hold the water any longer, the water began to spread and flood higher and higher, and the flood began.
To prevent further damage and the water from spreading, sandbags and water barriers were used on streets and properties.
The damage was happening, but to prevent further damage, controls were deployed to prevent further destruction
James teaches us in vs. 1-5 about the flood of damage being done with relationships among Christians
Fighting, wars, attacking one another, jealousy, etc
The flooding was apparent and damaging
The solution in presented in vs. 6-10
Come back to God. Our hearts need to be right with the Lord in humility realising the destruction we have caused.
The solution is to dredge our hearts by coming clean to God and allow Him to pull out the sin and wickedness in our hearts and lives
Damage control - the sandbags or flood barriers to deploy
We come to vs 11-12 and James teaches us how to avoid further damage and to prevent damage in the future
The Barrier
The Barrier
Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
James teaches us how to stop the flood waters, the destructive spread of words
Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: So where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; So is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a talebearer are as wounds, And they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.
The destruction happens quick like fire Proverbs teaches us
Alexander Whyte teaches of the OT example found in:
It was an high day of idolatry at Bethel. And, all the time, Bethel, of all the cities of Israel, was one of the most ancient and the most sacred. Bethel, as its name bears, was none other but the house of God, and it was the very gate of heaven. Bethel was built on that very spot on which their father Jacob had slept and dreamed when he was on his lonely way to Padan-aram; and it is that very heaven out of which the ladder was let down on Jacob’s pillow that is today to be darkened by the unclean incense of Jeroboam’s altar-fires. It was a brave step in Jeroboam to set up his false gods at Bethel, of all places in the land. And he needed a stout heart and a profane to support him as he stood up to kindle with his own hands the heathen fires of idolatry and impurity at Bethel.
And, behold there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And the man of God cried against the altar of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar! And then he foretold the fall of the altar, and with it the fall of him who stood in his royal robes that day ministering to his unclean gods at that altar. And how Jeroboam’s hand was withered that moment; how it was healed immediately at the intercession of the man of God; how Jeroboam invited the prophet to come home with him to eat and to drink and to get a reward; and how the prophet answered the king that he had the command of the Lord neither to eat bread nor to drink in that polluted land, but to return home to Judah as soon as he had delivered his prophetic burden—all that is to be read in the thirteenth chapter of First Kings.
At the same time, we are not told so much as this great prophet’s name. He was wholly worthy thus far to have his name held up aloft along with the names of Samuel and Elijah themselves, for he stood up alone against Jeroboam and against all Israel and nailed the curse of God to Jeroboam’s altar under the king’s own eyes. We would hold his name in more than royal honour if we knew it. But for some reason or other of her own the Bible holds his great name back. This great man of God comes out of a cloud, he shines for a splendid moment before all men’s eyes, and then he dies under a cloud. Alas, my brother!—Come home with me and refresh thyself. But the man of God said to the king, “If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee.” So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.
Just as the man of God is setting out to go back to Judah with a hungry belly indeed, but with a good conscience, we are taken by the hand and are led into the house of an old prophet who dwells at Bethel. Yes. There are prophets and prophets’ sons all this time at Bethel. Only, they had their domiciles and their doles from Jeroboam’s bounty on the strict condition that they kept at home and kept silence. Well, this old Bethelite prophet was keeping at home and was keeping silence when his sons burst in upon him with the great news of the day. Father, you should have come with us! We asked you to come. What a day it has been! And what a man of God we have seen! Till they told him all that we are told about Jeroboam, and his altar, and the man of God from Judah, and his cry that shook down the altar, and the king’s withered hand, and the prayer of the man of God, and the king’s hospitality, and the man of God’s refusal of the king’s hospitality.
“What way went he home?” demanded the old prophet of his excited sons. “Saddle me the ass,” he instantly ordered. “Art thou the man of God from Judah?” he asked, as he overtook the man of God sitting under an oak. “Come home with me and eat bread.” “I may not eat bread, nor drink water by the word of the Lord,” said the man of God. “But I am a prophet also as thou art.” But it was a lie, adds the sacred writer. So the man of God rose and went back and did eat bread and drink water. And so on; till a lion met him in the way home that night, and slew him because he had gone back. And when the old Bethelite prophet, who had deceived him, heard of it, he mourned over him, and said, “Alas, my brother!” And he said to his sons, “Bury me beside this man of God. Lay my bones beside his bones.”
What is it that makes the decrepit old prophet of Bethel post at such a pace after the man of God who is on his way home to Judah? Has his conscience at last been awakened? Have the tidings of his delighted sons filled the poor old timeserver with bitter remorse for his fat table and for his dumb pulpit? Or, is it deadly envy and revenge at the man who has so stolen his sons’ hearts that day till they are about to set off to Judah to go to school to this man of God? It is too late now for him to command his sons’ reverence and love. And how can he ever forgive the man who has so taken from him his crown as a prophet and as a father? “Saddle me the ass,” he shouted. And the decayed old creature rode down the Judean road at a pace he had not ridden since he used, as a godly youth, to be sent out on errands of life and death and mercy from Samuel’s School of Mount Ephraim. If lies will do it; if flattery, flesh, and wine will do it,—that Judean prophet’s pride shall be brought down today! “Saddle me the ass!” he thundered. So they saddled him the ass, and he rode after the man of God. “I am a prophet as thou art!” But he lied unto him.…
We are not told why this great man of God stopped short so soon on his way home from Bethel, and sat down so soon under one of the oaks of Bethel. He had done a splendid day’s work. Never prophet of God did a more splendid day’s work. But our hearts sink as we see him stop short, and then take his seat under that tempting tree. What was the matter? We are not told. He may have been very hungry by this time, and he may have begun to repent that he had not accepted the penitent king’s hospitality. Who knows what good might have come of it had he, God’s acknowledged prophet, been seen sitting in the place of honour at the royal table? Had he not been somewhat short, and sharp, and churlish after his great battle with Jeroboam’s altar?…
Well, then, if that was the case with the man of God from Judah,—here is the forbidden fruit of Bethel back and at his open mouth this moment: “I am a prophet as thou art, and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying: Bring him back to eat and to drink.” So he went back with him to his house.…
It was surely a little sin, if ever there was a little sin, to sup that Sabbath night at an old prophet’s table, and that, too, on the invitation of an angel. But the lion that met the disobedient prophet that night did not reason that way.
“Bury me,” said the remorseful old man to his sons standing in tears round his miserable deathbed, “bury me in the same grave with the bones of the man of God out of Judah.” And the old prophets sons so buried their father. And an awful grave that was in Bethel, with an awful epitaph upon it. Now, suppose this. Suppose that you were buried on the same awful principle,—in whose grave would your bones lie waiting together with his till the last trump to stand forth before God and man together? And what would your epitaph and his be? Would it be this: “Here lie the liar and his victim”? Or would it be this: “Here lie the seducer and the seduced”? Or would it be this! “Here lie the hater and him he hated down to death”?
Even David Livingstone felt the pain and anguish of the evil words. His wife died a premature death, thanks to the backbiting tongues of some people in the white settlements of Africa.
The Reason
The Reason
The sin
James 4:11b
Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
The motive
James 4:11c
Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
When we choose to be the judge, we step in to a territory we are not permitted to enter.
This is God’s territory. He sees the motives. He knows the reasons. He know the intents of the hearts.
As we enter this territory we choose to take God’s place and we set ourselves up as judge.
Job - a perfect and upright man whom God allowed Satan to test
Critiqued harshly by his 3 friends
Judged him by stating over and over again that there must be some blatant and wicked sin in his life for this to happen to him. They were unmerciful in their judgement upon Job.
When they had finished slandering him, God spoke. Then all of their merciless judging was silenced.
At the end Job stood forth, not only vindicated but also purified by the fire. God turned to Eliphaz and and said:
Job 42:7-8
And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.
These “friends” were guilty of doing what James spoke against.
The Guidance
The Guidance
There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
Only God knows all of the facts, and only He can lay down the law. His has absolute power of life and death.
James had seen this very thing:
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter:
Peter meanwhile saw a vision of a great sheet filled with all kinds of meats that he would not have eaten. God said, Eat. Peter said, No.
And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
3 times Peter saw this
Cornelius’ men arrived at the house and Peter went with these Gentiles
Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Peter gets back and notice what the Christians begin to say:
And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,
Peter concludes
And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
How did the Christians respond?
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
Often we get ourselves into trouble when we do not give others the benefit of the doubt.
Our heart is convicted or we are unsure of some details and we jump to conclusions that are not there or ever intended
God is the Judge!
It takes faith in God to allow Him to judge righteous judgment.