As we continue our study in the New Testament letter of James, the general epistle of James, I ask you to turn with me to our scripture reading to the fourth chapter. We'll be considering verses 7 through 12. But to understand it most clear in its context, let's begin reading at verse one, again, of the fourth chapter. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not, hence, even of the lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and ye have not, ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain, ye fight in war, Yet ye have not, because ye ask not, ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore, he saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judges the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judges another? Dear congregation, in the 1500s, The Lord's merciful grace unfolded in Providence when he raised up men like Martin Luther to be leaders in the movement and what we call today the Protestant Reformation. It was not called the Protestant Reformation at that time, but that's the way history has reflected on that great movement within the church. And it was named the Protestant Reformation because largely it was a protest against the teachings of the singular church at that time, which of course was the Roman Catholic Church. And it was named the Reformation because it was a reforming or a reshaping of the truths of the Bible as they were meant to be understood all along. The Reformers saw the teaching of the Bible from the pulpit in the one unified church prior to the split, of course, at the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church, and they saw that teaching largely as, not exclusively, but largely as deformed. And Luther, with all the rest, they saw it was their calling to reform the teaching of Scripture along the original contours of the Bible. And we know that one of the highlights of that movement was Martin Luther, famously in 1517, nailing his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. That was a common way to really announce anything. They didn't have Twitter, of course, and Facebook, and all the rest, and the printing press was just getting going somewhere around that time, and so when you wanted to make announcements, well, the church door really was the basic, the town bulletin board, if you will, and that's how they announced news. Well, Luther drew up 95 theses, and he nailed them to the church doors at that time. And really what those were, they were 95 protests against the teachings of the organized church, which Luther hoped, we glean, would at least become talking points within the church and among the theologians and the leaders of the day. And we know, of course, how history unfolded. Not only did they become talking points, but they became flashpoints of debate and in some cases all-out war because Luther touched on raw nerves within the church when he spoke very strongly and wrote very strongly also with his character and in his messages themselves against the great doctrines of the faith that were adhered to for so long. But we ask, how could this monk, this monk who no one had really heard about other than his local colleagues at that time, challenge and really come against the church's teachings? Well, Luther could challenge and Luther did challenge hundreds and really around a thousand years of teaching. Erroneous teaching by simply explaining the Bible to the people in the language that they understood. And if you read the original 95 Theses of Luther, which you can just simply type in in Google, and you get the list of all 95 of them, it may be surprising of how many of them touch on the subject of repentance and penance. And really at that time, the Roman Catholic Church had quite a system going. And at the heart of that system was this unbiblical idea of penance and repentance. They taught that when somebody sins, that in order for that sin to be absolved, in order for that sin to be pardoned, that sinner then goes to the priest, they confess that sin to the priest, they apparently repent of it, and the priest forgives them, him or her with divine authority, they believed. And the pardoned sinner, the so-called pardoned sinner then, was then required to pay some money and then go off and do some Christian work of mercy to erase at least some of the guilty conscience that would be lingering. And that whole cycle was called penance. And so it was not only a very clever money-making strategy, but it was also a mechanism by which those in power could manipulate, could control those who came to them looking for direction at their most vulnerable time. And so when Luther exposed, he came along and he exposed this erroneous system for what it really was, it's understandable that his very life was in danger and his very life was something that he now needed to protect and he was graciously spared in God's mercy on several occasions. And if you read through that list of the theses that he posted that day to the church doors in Wittenberg, the number one thesis was this. Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, willed that the whole life of believers should be that of repentance. And several of the theses following unpack the scriptural meaning of that. Well, today we come to this subject of repentance in our continued study of the series of James, even though we actually don't find that word, particularly here in these verses. We find it, of course, all the way through scripture. But the principle is embedded here. in verses 7 through 12 of James chapter 4. And so our title, our theme for this evening's message very simply is Repentance Realized. Repentance Realized. And I want to break it down into two very basic categories. that we find flowing from the text this evening, from these verses, and that is repentance realized personally, on the personal level, and then repentance realized relationally, how that works itself out among our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord around us. So repentance realized personally and relationally. You recall we considered in our last message that James, this very wise and experienced preacher and exegete of the Old Testament scriptures, really an exegete of biblical truth. was guided in providence by God to be some form of church leader. The book of Acts teaches us that many people came to him with concerns and past things by him, and he seemed to give his nod of approval or his guidance on certain subjects. We saw that when we went through a few years ago in the book of Acts. But he's somewhat of a spiritual heart surgeon here in this letter because he cuts deeply. He cuts deeply with a scalpel of scripture and he lays, as it were, our heart open and exposes it for what it really is. And last time we saw, as chapter four begins to unfold, that he had exposed the sad reality within some of the churches to whom he was writing that there was wars and conflicts among them. There was conflicts and quarrels then just as there are in the contemporary church to this very day. And you remember, he didn't just identify it for what it is. He didn't say, well, I see there's wars and fighting among you. Right away, he gets to the root of actually why there were wars and fighting among them. And that was because there was selfish, self-serving pride that fueled much of those disagreements. And so we saw that selfishness leads to bitterness. And that which was true then is still true to this very day. Selfishness leads to bitterness. And that in turn, as James continues to really expose all the great problems of living that way, he says that also leads to prayerlessness. You ask, you don't ask, you don't receive because you don't ask, that's prayerlessness. And then sometimes you ask and you ask amiss. And so there can be also a misguided prayer as a result of that. And all of these things are rooted in the great problem of selfishness, of self-serving. And all of which James, you recall last time we saw, really calls unfaithfulness, and that's what he's getting at when he addresses them as adulterers and adulteresses. And he's really saying in code form or shorthand form, if you will, a metaphoric form, that We're being unfaithful to God when we live that way. But he also calls it worldliness. If you're doing this, he says, you're a friend of the world. And when you're a friend of the world, he says, you are not a friend of God. And so you are unfriending God, to say it in Facebook language, and you are friending the world. And that dreaded spiritual malady can so easily, he really shows, drag down our souls even while, ironically, we are seeking to build ourselves up in self-adoration. And so it follows, doesn't it, just quite naturally, that such worldliness needs to be repented of. It calls for scriptural repentance. He doesn't say, well, there's wars and fightings among you, and it comes from your own desire, your own lust, your own longings, your own self-focus, your own self-serving. And he doesn't say, well, you know, this is just the way it is. And he doesn't say, well, just give it some time, and time will heal the whole problem. Now he really launches into and he shows us how to cure the problem that was happening in the church at that time, in the scattered churches in that time and still happens within the church of the Lord Jesus Christ to this very day. But you recall really before he gets to the fact that he calls them and us as well to repentance, he sets the table, as it were, for this repentance to be effective. And so, James, we closed last time seeing that he gives the proper environment for healing. And he gives the proper environment for healing in verses 5 and 6. And you remember that just like when you take medicine, sometimes you have to take medicine with food. It's a proper environment in which the medicine will work the best. And so sometimes you have to take medicine before you go to bed or in certain other situations. And that just makes the medicine the most effective. Well, in verses five and six, he gives the environment in which the medicine of repentance for the problem that they were experiencing will be the most effective. And just very briefly in review, we saw that First of all, he tells them that the first thing they have to remember, and we too, in verse five, where do you think that the scripture says, in vain, the spirit that dwells in us yearns jealously. And we saw that all the way through the Bible, this principle, it arises that God is a jealous God. He's jealous for that which he owns. And it's clear that James is speaking about the jealousy that he has for that which he owns, namely his church. Jealous means that God is full of zeal for his own honor. And he has put his Holy Spirit within his people. And he does that when he spiritually marries us in the way of relationship. And he, therefore, is the great heavenly bridegroom we saw. He yearns, he longs with a well-grounded zeal that we are faithful to him. And the more we realize that, the more we recognize that, the more we embrace that, the more we sink, as it were, our feet into that ground of understanding regarding it, that a spirit longs for us with a jealousy, the better off we will be spiritually and the more we will mature in our Christian walk when we do eventually repent before Him. That's the first dynamic, if you will, or first aspect of the proper environment for healing. But then secondly, we saw also in verse six, as he leads up to the medicine of repentance, that he gives more grace. He, that's God, the divine source, gives more grace. You remember, we reflected on the fact that you and I do not produce grace. We are graceless by nature. Even after we have received the very gift of God's grace, there is not a natural well of grace that wells up somewhere, somehow within us. The grace that we need to repent, to believe, to live the Christian life still comes from outside of us through the mercies of God. through Jesus Christ, and he, James reminds us, gives more grace. And we need to realize that. We need to embrace that. And we need to remember that he gives more grace. He doesn't give less grace. He gives more grace. And the more we recognize that the true source of grace and the mercy of more grace given the more effective our life of repentance will be. It's not like we come to God and we say, okay, God, now you serve the ball to me, you gave me salvation, and now it's my turn to serve the ball back to you in my own strength. And so it's not a matter of he does, we do, he does, we do. He grants it all. It's always free, merciful, sovereign, one-sided grace that He gives us. Even as we believe in Him, as we repent before Him, He gives us the faith to believe in Him. He gives us the grace to repent of our sins before Him. He gives more grace. And the more we grasp that, the better we will be as we live the life of repentance. And we're not going to come to the point and say, you know, I just can't repent anymore. God says, yes, you can, because I give you the grace. And then thirdly, we see in verse six that James writes, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And we saw that that's a quote from Proverbs three and verse 34. And so what James is saying once again, that this is the way it's always been. This is the way a Solomon taught it to be in the book of Proverbs. This is the scriptural way. This is the scriptural way of wisdom. that God resists, that He pushes away self-focused people because that was the issue why there were wars and fighting among them in the first place. But He gives His grace unto those who are humble, those who are brokenhearted. Those who see themselves as needy sinners, he gives and he gives and he gives again as we sing in the wonderful hymn. And so when the spiritual environment is right, the medicine of spiritual healing is given to the sin sick patient. And he shows first how this takes place on the personal level. We find that being unpacked and unfolding in verse seven. Therefore, therefore we find. In other words, because this is truth, therefore submit to God. Now obviously in that little phrase, submit therefore to God, therefore submit to God, The key word is the word submit. It's the verb, it's the action word, it's an exhortation, it's a command. Submit to God. Now, in our 21st century world, this word, in a certain sense, is a most undesirable one. When people hear, also in church circles often, times the word submit, they want to run and hide and they don't want to hear these things. And sometimes, sadly, that is because there has been an abuse of authority, maybe ecclesiastical or within the home, and there's been an abuse of authority and a wrong application of the concept of submission. But the biblical concept behind the biblical word submit, also as we find it here, carries within it placing oneself under authority. Placing oneself under authority. And of course, that's what we are called to do, therefore. We are called to place ourselves under the authority of God. And we need to do that because if we think that we're in charge, or we think somehow that we're kind of equal in authority to God, our repentance will never be sincere, our spiritual maturation and our growth in grace will never in truth be realized, and it'll never transpire. But if we recognize indeed that God, as the psalmist says, is king over all the earth, and that includes myself, and we are desires to be under his rule of authority, then you see we are in the right place and the right spiritual posture before him. And I say we must willingly place ourselves under his authority because it is entirely possible for an individual to acknowledge that He is King without actually bowing down under the authority of Christ. Think of the example in Matthew 5 and verse 10, or Mark rather, 5 and verse 10, there was demons speaking to Christ and acknowledging that He is King and even asking Him permission for certain things. But yet, certainly demons don't bow under the authority of Christ, do they? And so, you see, it's possible for demons, for individuals as well, to acknowledge the authority, at least confess it with our lips, but never have a heart submission under that authority of God. James here gives us his exhortation. He is saying, as we'll continue to see quite clearly, that we are to willingly surrender our whole being under the authority of God. That's what it is to submit to God. And so submitting to God includes both recognizing that he is sovereign and in total control, and then actually surrendering to that sovereign authority. And we are to do that willingly, not grudgingly, not like maybe a teenager might do when they're told by his or her parent to obey while you're under my roof. And they have to. even though they don't want to. Maybe we've all been there and done that. But this must be our sincere desire to be under the authority of God. And maybe right from the get-go, we hear exhortations like this coming to us individually, and we ask ourselves, well, how? Well, all we have to do is return back to verse six and read that wonderful phrase. He gives more grace. He gives more grace. You see, we can't do that ourselves. We can't conjure up this submission and this desire to acknowledge him as king and to surrender totally to him in our own strength. It doesn't work. It never has worked. And I trust you know by your own painful experience that you've tried to do that and it just doesn't work. And so we have to be reminded that He gives more grace. In His grace, He gives what we need to willingly and sweetly surrender, to submit to His merciful authority. It's really so simple. but yet it's so entirely difficult. because it is so against our old nature, that which still resides in it. And that becomes the struggle, doesn't it, of the Christian walk. That's the classic struggle of the old man, new man, the struggle that we find recorded in the great apostle Paul, some 20 years into his Christian journey. The good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I find myself doing, a wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And so this constant internal struggle to do the right thing and struggling and stumbling all the time. But then James goes on, and after he lays really this foundation of the absolute necessity of submitting to the authority and under the authority of God, Then he says, now more particularly, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now, as we're going to look at in future weeks, God willing, in our Heidelberg Catechism, that we're not only to pray, lead me not into temptation, but James here gives the exhortation to proactively flee from Satan. Proactively flee from Satan. Flee, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Now Paul wrote about Satan in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 11, and he said, we are not ignorant of his devices. We are not ignorant of his schemes. You see the apostle Paul, he understood how the devil operates, what the devil's schemes are, what his goals are, what his way is. And even though we may live thousands of years later, we can know the exact same thing that the Apostle Paul knew. And how do we learn these things? Well, we study the scripture. We study the record of how Satan has worked in history. This Bible contains not only how God has worked in grace, praise be to God for that, But this Bible also contains how Satan has sought to lead the people of God as well into temptation, how he has veiled over the eyes, how he whispers in the ear, how he misleads the people of God, how he divides and how he seeks to undermine the very work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have to study. Study his ways. And we find, of course, his ways and his schemes, his devious schemes, all the way through Scripture. But I'm thinking particularly at this moment of the way he sought to tempt Adam and Eve in the garden. You remember when he came face to face, when Eve came face to face with Satan, as the New Testament calls him, the old serpent. And what did Satan do? Well, Satan's attack was really four-pronged. Four-pronged. First of all, Satan questioned the inspiration of God's word, didn't he? Did God really say? He questioned the inspiration of God's word. Then too, Satan attacked the authority of God. You remember, God said to them, don't eat it, don't eat of the tree, lest you die. And what does Satan do? Well, he suggested, well, eat of it. And then he says, you won't die. You will not die. Thirdly, Satan distorted the character of God. And how did he do that? Well, he suggested, at least, strongly suggested, that God was a harsh taskmaster, restricting them from every tree. Did not God say, he asked Eve, that you may not eat of every tree of the garden? And God had only restricted them from one tree. And then fourthly, he declared that freedom would be theirs if they only disobeyed God and listened to Him. your eyes will be opened the day that you eat of the fruit. And you know, Satan still works the very same way today, doesn't he? He distorts the word of God, he questioned God's authority, he misrepresents God's character, and he declares freedom will be ours if we simply follow him. And we are to recognize the way he works because he doesn't change his ways a whole lot. He has different applications of that, but really those are the principles in which he continues to work out his schemes and his devices to this very day. The Apostle Paul, he understood this. And so the Apostle Paul was able to flee from the devil, to resist the devil, and to flee from him. And when we understand the way Satan works, we will recognize that and be able, by the grace of God, only by the grace of God, to do that which James gives exhortation to do, that is, resist the devil and he will flee from you. But then the flip side of that is found in verse 8. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And really what James is saying here, isn't he, is that we are to come to Jesus Christ in faith. We are to draw near to God. We are to rest in Him. We are to rest in Christ's promises. Rest in the promises that we find in the Word of God, which really find their beginning point and their ending point in Christ alone. All the promises are in Him, yea and amen. That means they find their root and they find their conclusion in the Son of God Himself. And so we are to rest in His promises. We are to draw near to Him. And we will find that when we do draw near to Him in faith, He will not stay distant. James writes, He will draw near to you. And so I exhort us all to test God at His own word. This is His own promise. This is His promise, not only to the 12 churches, but this is His promise to us as well. And when we do rest in Him and rest in His promises, we will never be disappointed. And drawing near also conjures up the idea of love and commitment, doesn't it? When we love someone, we want to be with them. We want to draw near to them. And so much more it is with God in Jesus Christ. We are to draw near and He draws near to us. And the very fact that Hebrews 7 and verse 25 tells us that He is holy and separate from sinners, We easily can draw the quick conclusion that it is only possible that you and I can draw near to God through the work of and by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great peacemaking grace and His great peacemaking redemption where He makes us at one with Him. He unites us to Him. That's the only way that this truth can be realized in our hearts as we walk the Christian life of sanctification and also walk the Christian life of repentance, drawing near to God and finding then also that He will draw near to us. But James doesn't stop there, because he goes on and he continues to give exhortation. And he says, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Now what James is doing, the half-brother of Jesus, He is borrowing the very language and the metaphor of the Old Testament ceremonial washing in which the priests would come to the labor and they would wash their hands. And it was not so much the physical washing that the priest was concerned of, and that's not why God gave it so much that he was worried about the actual germs on his hands, but it was ceremonial of the washing that was required for his heart as he approached God. And you see, drawing that principle forward into the New Testament, we find all kinds of references to that washing all the way through Scripture, that we are to wash our hands and purify our hearts. In other words, what James is saying, very simply, is that we are to come clean, outside and inside. both outward action and inward heart disposition. Both need cleansing by the blood of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ. And both are absolutely necessary because it is entirely possible once again, isn't it? To clean up our outward actions and still have a heart that is distant from God. We all know what that's like, to clean up our outward actions and have a heart that's distant from God. God spoke of this in Isaiah 29 and verse 13. He says, these people, they draw near to me with their mouths, that's their outward expression, and honor me with their lips. but have removed their hearts far from me. And their fear towards me is taught by the commandments of men. And so they were just in external obedience, God says, doing things externally because some people told them to do some things externally. And at a quick glance, the common observer would say, wow, you know, Those individuals, that individual, they're doing a really good job. You see, God looks not on the outward appearance so much, but he looks on the heart, doesn't he? And so he says, as we come to him in the life of sanctification, cleanse your hands, the external expression also of sin, you sinners, and purify your hearts. remember the story of the little boy who was getting ready for a wedding and his mom was in the next room and it was getting late and toward the time when the wedding was to transpire and And so she told him, go and clean up for the wedding. And so he went to the other room, he's washing up, and he called back to his mom in the next room and says, am I wearing short sleeves or am I wearing long sleeves to this wedding? His mom was puzzled by that question and said, well, why do you want to know? And he says, well, I want to know how far up my arms I need to wash. But that's exactly what we do, don't we? We clean up ourselves in as far as people can see. And we forget that God sees everything. He sees all the rest and he sees right into our hearts. And so he says, clean up the outside and the inside. And again, we can't do either without his grace. We need the fountain of cleansing, the blood of Jesus to do it all. And that's why William Cooper wrote these wonderful, memorable words. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. You see, all this is the way of repentance. And then he gives a very interesting exhortation in verse nine. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Now, likely what James is speaking about here is this. The laughter about the ways of sin ought not to be rejoiced over, but rather mourned over. Not, of course, that Christians should not rejoice in the Lord. We should rejoice and we must rejoice in the Lord. Happy is that people who has the God of Jacob for his help. But we have to mourn, even as we rejoice over God, we have to mourn over the sin that is within us. That's what James is writing about. You see, this is all part of the right biblical demeanor and the posture of repentance. We don't joy in sin. We don't rejoice in these things, lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter, that is over self-focus, that's what he's really rooting this all in, be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Not that he calls us to be gloomy about his grace, but he calls us to have a right attitude towards sin, also that we find dwelling within us. And he continues that we shouldn't be lifted up in pride. Remember, that's what he's really concerned of right from the very get-go of this chapter. We shouldn't be lifted up in pride, but verse 10, humble yourselves in the sight of God and he will lift you up. It seems that many within the church wanted to lift themselves up. That's why there were wars and fightings among them. We saw that last time. But that which was a problem then is still a problem now. This is a relentless problem of mankind. We want to retain our self-esteem and somehow at the same time honor God. But God says the way to be rightly lifted up is if we humble ourselves before him and then he lifts us up. And that's so counterintuitive, isn't it? It's against our natural direction. It's against our natural affection. It's against our natural desire. But this is why Luther said, That true faith and true repentance, being saved is going lost at the foot of the cross. Really, that's what he was getting at all along, is surrendering, is submitting, is to humbling ourselves at the foot of the cross. And then God, in this wonderful way, he lifts us up. You see, in the Christian life of sanctification, this is the way of repentance, which is the flip side of faith. This is the challenge for us. But clearly, from all the exhortations that we find in every verb here within this passage, this is our calling to engage in. Again, by the grace of God. But We are to realize that personally, but then also secondly, and more briefly, in closing, relationally. Look at verse 11. Do not speak evil of one of another, brethren. He who speaks evil of his brother judges his brother. and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge." Verse 12, there's one lawgiver and one, there's one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? Now, given what was happening in the churches, in verse one, wars and fightings, conflicts and quarrels, When we truly repent, when we truly submit and we repent before God, there will be and ought to be noticeable difference in our walk even as we engage with our brothers and sisters because again what was the problem in the churches there was what wars and fightings quarrels and conflicts among them now that was the outgrowth of the of the pride problem and so now james here he's addressing and showing that when you truly submit to God, you repent before him, there's going to be a difference in how you now interact with your brothers and sisters in Christ. There ought to be. It ought not to be that you say, well, I repented and I submitted to God, but it makes no difference now how my interpersonal relationships are with everyone else. Well, there has to be, there will be. It affects us relationally. And so James gives us four strands of thought, and I just want to give you those four strands of thought that we find here in these last two verses, verses 11 and 12. First of all, he says most plainly, don't speak evil of a fellow believer. And here, three times in the verse, he uses the term brother. And so clearly he's referring to your fellow believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't speak evil of a brother. Some interpret this term evil as the word slander. We shouldn't slander a brother or sister's character. This is a direct exhortation. And embedded in that whole idea is clearly the problem that they were engaging in, in the churches at that time, which is still a problem today, is that when we do that, we have, don't we, this holier-than-thou attitude, that I'm a little better than you attitude. And so he says, plainly, right off the top, don't do it. Don't do it. Now, we must be discerning. That doesn't take away from the fact that we have to be discerning. It doesn't take away the fact that we have to address sin from time to time in the life of a fellow believer. Matthew chapter 18, the book of Thessalonians tells us, we see someone walk in the way of sin, we don't say, you know, I'm not going to do anything to do with it. No, no, that's not what James is saying here. But don't speak evil. Don't speak evil in the way of slander with this judgmental spirit. Don't do it, he says. That's first. He says, because when we do do that, Secondly, we become a judge. We become the judge rather than allowing the law of God to be the judge. You see, God's law is sufficient to condemn. And so secondly, we take the place of the law. And then kind of overlapping with that is this parallel line that James lays in here as well. An overlapping thought thirdly is that when we speak evil judgmentally of another, we become the judge of others, then we are usurping or we are taking over the authority of God. And we must remember that the Bible teaches so plainly that God alone is the lawgiver and is the judge. And we are saying, as it were, to God, when we would speak evil, slanderously about our neighbor, we are saying to God, well, God, can you just move out of the way and let me handle this? I have a better plan than you. And in so doing, we're actually not only belittling God, we're belittling God's law by speaking evil of our neighbor slanderously. But then fourthly, the fourth line of thought that James lays down here is that if we would speak evil of a brother slanderously, we ourselves then are not keeping the spirit of the law by loving our neighbor, the second The second side of the law is, the first side is love God above all, the second is love your neighbor. Jesus summed it up that way, didn't he? And so again, in verse 11 and 12, here are these four principles. Do not speak evil one of another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, You are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? So don't speak evil in the way of slander. Don't become the judge. Don't usurp, take over the authority of God or his law, but rather positively Keep the law, the spirit of the law of God, which is love, your neighbor. So clearly here, James, he concludes this exhortation regarding repentance with a very serious warning. And so repentance, affects not only my own relationship with God through Christ, but it also affects my relationship with my fellow man, which includes a Christian spouse, a fellow church member, and really all who profess the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why Paul writes to the Ephesians who were really basically living at peace. He says, we ought to be always endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And there's really only one way to do that. That's in the name of the great peacemaker and the great peace giver, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so I ask us very briefly, in closing this evening, are we living God-honoring, faith-filled, repentant lives? This was not only God's will for the church that was scattered about in the day that James wrote these words, but this is still God's will for his church today. And I pray that it would be our will, since it is God's will, and that he would grant us that sweet surrender of submission under his authority and that longing desire for repentance that we would do this for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Let's pray.