John Ortberg tells the story of three men: Leon, Joseph, and Clyde-each of whom suffered from a Messiah complex. Now, please understand-when I say these guys had a Messiah complex, I’m not saying that they were conceited or even overly narcissistic. No-each of these three men actually thought he was a reincarnation of THE Messiah-Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. You see, Leon and Joseph and Clyde were patients at a mental hospital in Ypsilanti, Michigan and had each been diagnosed with a psychotic delusional disorder.Psychologist Milton Rokeach wrote a book about his work with these men entitled, The Three Christs of Ypsilati. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. In his book Rokeach says that after several failed attempts to help cure these three men, he decided to try an experiment. Instead of working with them individually, he put the three men into the SAME small group. For two years these three delusional messiahs were assigned adjacent beds, ate every meal together, worked together at the same job, and met daily for group discussions. I guess you could say that Rokeach set up a kind of “messianic twelve-step recovery group.”
Well, he decided to try this avenue of treatment because he thought rubbing up against other would-be messiahs might diminish each of the men’s delusion and his experiment led to some interesting conversations. For example. One of the men would claim, “I’m the messiah, the Son of God. I am on a mission. I was sent here to save the earth.” Rokeach would ask, “How do you know this?” The man would say, “God told me” and then one of the other three patients would counter, “I never told you any such thing!”
Now, I’m sure each of us-in spite of our lack of psychiatric training-would agree that Leon, Joseph, and Clyde are mentally ill. We’re all intelligent enough to realize that these men have lost their grip on reality. To coin a popular phrase, “they don’t have both oars in the water.” But you know the embarrassing truth is…many times we are just as delusional. I mean, to coin another popular phrase, there are days in which you and I behave as if we are “a few fries short of a Happy Meal.” And I make this mass diagnosis of mental illness because so many times we foolishly live our lives as if we were God Himself. Now, before you get defensive, take your Bibles and look with me at James 4:11-17, because this is what James says in this text. In fact in these verses he describes TWO WAYS that Christians often live and behave as if they were God Almighty. Follow along now-and as I read see if you don’t feel your own behavior being described in James’ words.11 – Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
12 – There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One Who is able to save and destroy. But you-who are you to judge your neighbor?
13 – Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”
14 – Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
15 – Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
16 – As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
17 – Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
Did that text hit home a bit? It did with me. Like all Scripture this text from James “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12) and I CAN see times that in my own thoughts and attitudes I’ve played God in the ways that James describes.
Well, I think the best treatment for this mental disorder that plagues us all from time to time-the best way to CORRECT our mental deficiencies in this area-is to take a closer look at what God has said here through James’ letter. For, as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, and CORRECTING.” And the FIRST “correctional truth” we see as we look CLOSELY at this portion of God’s Word is that…
1. …you and I often play God…in the way we view OTHERS.
According to James we EXPRESS our view of other people-our opinions of them-in the SLANDEROUS statements we make behind their backs.
Now, what exactly does it mean to SLANDER someone? Well the Greek word that James uses here is “katalalia” and it literally means, “to talk down.” And that’s what slanderous words are: PUT DOWNS-verbal cuts or slashes at another person’s character-those words that we utter with the goal of diminishing another person’s worth.
William Barclay describes it like this: “Katalalia-SLANDER-is the sin of those who meet in corners and gather in little groups and pass on confidential tidbits of whispered information which destroys the reputation and good name of those who are not there to defend themselves.”
People who slander others usually speak without hard facts and they often creatively disguise their evil motives with such statements as, “Now stop me if I’m wrong but…” Or “Perhaps I should not say this about her but…” Sometimes we even MASK our slander in religious activity by saying we need to pray for so and so because they have some real problems in our opinion…and then we describe the problems-problems which are nothing more than our own cleverly crafted attacks on another individual. In this way we “Christianize” our slander by spreading negative information about a person behind their back.
Now if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of slander then you know how much it hurts. I’ve known of people whose entire lives were destroyed by a few well-placed words of slander. Personally, I think slander is more painful than an actual physical wound. Wouldn’t you agree?
And you know, even our fallen culture recognizes how catastrophic slander can be. I say this because we have passed laws that make it possible to sue those people who slander us for defamation of character.
Well, the Bible has a great deal to say about this issue. In fact it denounces the sin of slander more often than it does any other sin. Perhaps this is because the first act of slander in human history-satan’s slanderous talk to Eve concerning God’s one law-led to the first sin. People have followed satan’s example ever since by slashing at each other with their derogatory words.
No wonder in Leviticus 19:16 God says, “You shall NOT go about as a slanderer among your people.” The seriousness of slander caused David to say in Psalm 101:5, “Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy.” In Matthew 15:20, Jesus said that slander “…defiles a person.” 1 Peter 2:1 says, “Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and SLANDER of every kind.” Psalm 15:3 says that it is the mark of a GODLY man, “…that he does not slander with his tongue.” and Romans 1:30 says it is the mark of the WICKED, “…that they slander others.”
Now, why is slander such a big deal? I mean, sure-it hurts people-but so does stealing and adultery. Well, James answers this question by saying that SLANDER is a “big deal” for two reasons.
A. First of all in verse 11 he says that when we slander-when we attack other people with our words-we are putting ourselves above God’s LAW.
The law James is referring to is the law of love-Jesus’ command in John 13:34 that we love one another. Remember? Our Lord said this law was second in importance only to our command to love God. Well, when we criticize one another-when we hatefully slash at other people with our words-we are declaring this law of God to be null and void and inoperative in our lives. In fact, as James points out, when we slander each other we are slandering God’s law-With our verbal actions we are saying that this particular law of God is not worth obeying….and this leads to a second reason James says slandering is such a big deal.
B. You see, when we attack others with our words-when we judge someone with our opinions, we are putting ourselves in God’s PLACE.
As verse 15 says there is only ONE Lawgiver and Judge-and it’s not us! This is because only God is Holy and Perfect…which means only He is capable of judging the behavior of others. It follows then that the moment we engage in the verbal judgement of fellow Christians, we’ve overstepped our boundaries and encroached on God’s territory. The truth is when we do this we’ve duplicated satan’s sin-that fool who sought unsuccessfully to usurp God’s throne.
It would be like my running on the basketball court during one of Sarah’s or Becca’s games and telling the refs to take a hike and then proceeding to issue my own rules. Now, there have been times I’ve been tempted to do just that-but it would be wrong. That would not be my place.
I don’t have the training to be a basketball ref. I don’t even have a black and white shirt and a whistle. Well, it is not our place to put ourselves in judgement above others either. That’s God’s job! And James responded to the slanderous actions of the Christians of his day by saying, “Who are you to do this? Who died and left you in charge of the universe?”
By the way, the Greek word for “Slander” comes from the same Greek word that means “blasphemy.” And there is a VERY real sense that when we sinfully criticize others with our words, we are committing the sin of blasphemy. For we are attacking-judging-the handiwork of God Himself.
Let me give you an example to explain what I mean. Let’s say I came home from work and smelled supper on the stove. I went into the kitchen and saw that Sue was stirring a pot of stew.
Now, if I were to say, “Sue, that stew stinks!” Sue would be offended. She’d probably tear up and run out of the room crying or she’d attack me with her spoon until I teared up and ran out of the room crying.
Now why would my comments cause all this fuss? After all, I wasn’t putting down Sue. I was putting down her STEW-STEW not SUE. But you see the truth is, when you put down what a person makes you put down the person who made it! Now, God made humans. He loves them. He considered them worth the death of His only Son. So when we attack another person with our slander we are criticizing God’s precious handiwork and that is blasphemy! No wonder James confronts the sin of SLANDER so forcefully! It is a BIG DEAL!
Now-please don’ t misunderstand me here. James is NOT saying that it is wrong to lovingly rebuke a fellow Christian who persists in unrepentant sin. In Matthew 18;15-17 Jesus commanded us to do exactly this…to go to a fellow believer who is sinning and IN LOVE admonish them for their behavior. Doing that is not slander. Slander is lying about someone behind their back with the intent to hurt. The motive behind admonishing someone to their face with the truth of their sin-the motive behind this action is to help, to heal, to restore-not hurt.
Okay-according to James you and I do often play God in the way we VIEW OTHERS…a view that is seen in our slanderous, hateful, lies. But in verse 13-17 James says there is a SECOND way that we show our mental delusion.
2. And it is seen when we play God in the way we VIEW OURSELVES.
James points out that this is often manifested in our making plans in life without consulting God-living according to OUR WILL instead of HIS and behaving in this way shows that we VIEW OURSELVES far too highly!
In verse 13 James cites the example of the Jewish merchants of his day who would say, “Today and tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” These guys acted as if they were omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent in that they planned the WHERE and the WHEN and the WHAT of their lives without consulting God. Their pride-filled behavior reminds me of the familiar words from Henley’s classic poem: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”
Well, you and I often make the same mistake, for there are so many times in life when we delude ourselves into thinking that WE are the final authority and proceed to make our plans without consulting God.
Like the sin of slander, this too is a big deal – a definite “no-no” for any Christian. I say this because the Bible teaches over and over again that nothing more clearly summarizes the character of a genuine believer than a desire to do the will of God instead of the will of self. In Psalm 40:8 David wrote, “I delight to do Your will, O my God.” In Mark 3:35 Jesus taught that, “whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.” And then do you remember the solemn warning Jesus gave in Matthew 7:21? He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the WILL of My Father.”
No wonder Peter exhorted Christians to “no longer live for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” (1 Peter 4:2) As Proverbs 3 commands, we are to acknowledge God’s will in “all our ways.” And you know, the truth is, not doing this IS CRAZY because we aren’t God. We aren’t omniscient-we don’t know what lies in the future. Only God does. Only He knows what waits around the bend in life and He graciously promises to “direct our paths.” All we have to do is ask. So, it is INSANELY foolish to plod ahead without taking advantage of His guidance!
And then, James says another reason it makes no sense to live life according to our will instead of God’s is because our lives are so BRIEF.
In verse 15 he points out that at best our entire life span is but “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” This passage is based on a verse in the Proverbs which says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” Now we don’t like to think about it but James is right here. The truth is the moment we are born we begin to die. As someone has said, “The wood of the cradle rubs up tightly against the marble of the tomb.”
A life-insurance agent had presented a plan to a potential customer. He closed his presentation by saying, “Don’t let me frighten you into anything. Go home and sleep on it. And, IF you do wake up in the morning, let me know what you think!” This “super-salesman” was trying to key in on this basic unavoidable principle of the brevity of life.
Well, in view of this fact that our lives are brief, how foolish it would is to disregard God’s will. It makes much more sense to follow Moses’ advice in Psalm 90:12 and ask God to “teach us to number our [limited] days ARIGHT, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” We must not follow the example of the man who said, “I have made two mistakes in life and both mistakes are mathematical. I have misjudged the BREVITY of life and the LENGTH of eternity.”
And then James says another way we disregard the will of God is by NOT doing what we know we should do-acts that are referred to as, sins of OMISSION.
A teacher was giving her SS children a lesson on sin. She wanted her kids to understand the difference between sins of COMMISSION and sins of OMISSION. “Sins of commission,” the teacher explained, “are the sins we actually DO. Now, does anyone know what sins of omission are?” One little boy responded, “Those are the sins we want to do, but haven’t gotten around to yet.” Well, this little boy was not quite correct.
As James says, a sin of omission is knowing what is right to do and failing to do it-knowing God’s will and stubbornly deciding to ignore it. This particular form of sin comes in three basic varieties.
A. First of all, sometimes the sin of omission simply involves self-centeredness-those times when we don’t LOVE enough.
In John 13:35 Jesus said, “By this will all men know you are My disciples…if you have love for one another.” Many times we disobey this command and the reason we do is because because they get too caught up in ourselves. We care too much about our own needs and hurts to become involved in loving others-when I can tell you for a fact that there is a world full of people who are crying out for someone to simply care. This is one of the most basic messages of the New Testament-that God wants to love others through us-and when we fail to do so, we sin!
B. And then, a second example of a sin of omission is SILENCE-the sin of not SAYING enough.
In Acts 1:8 Jesus told his first disciples, “When the Holy Spirit has come upon you…you shall be My witnesses.” Unfortunately many churches are filled with silent Christians, those whose only witness seems to be a nonverbal testimony to the world that says Christ is really not all that important.
Now, witnessing does not have to be the hard-sell approach of buttonholing a person on the street and asking, “ARE YOU SAVED?!” I mean there ARE times when circumstances might suggest that approach…like the time when a Christian who was at a ball game. A man pointed to the seat next to him and said, “Is that seat saved?” The Christian answered, “No, are you?” Or consider the barber who was giving a man a shave. When he was about to shave the man’s neck with his blade, he asked, “Are you ready to meet your Master?”
Well, sometimes God may call us to use a lovingly confrontive approach like this in witnessing but usually sharing our faith simply involves our obedience to 1 Peter 3:15, where it says,
“Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
In fact I believe that if we all lived according to God’s will. If we all lived TRULY CHRISTIAN lives we would constantly have people coming to us asking us about our faith-asking how we have hope in the midst of life’s troubles and pain. And then if we were also always ready and prepared to answer their questions-well, this church’s aisles would be filled with people publicly professing their faith in Jesus.
The sad truth is most aren’t prepared to answer people’s question, so we ignore the God-given opportunities we have to share our faith. We never reproduce ourselves spiritually. We never share the love of God that people so desperately need.
J. Hudson Taylor, went to China as a missionary in 1857. He witnessed to and won to the Lord a man named Nyi. Nyi was thrilled at his newfound faith and began sharing it with his friends. He asked Taylor, “How long have you had this good news in England?” Taylor admitted the gospel had been known in England for many centuries. And then Nyi asked an agonizing question, “Well why didn’t you come sooner? My father died seeking the truth.”
People, all around us here in Montgomery County there are people who are searching for the Truth which will set them free. To have the truth and be silent-to refuse to share the good news of the gospel-is a sin against God.
You know the fact is we have conditioned ourselves not to worry about our failure to witness. I mean if we were to hurt someone accidentally we’d feel guilty. If we get mad and lose our temper or curse at our kids we feel terrible. But we can go for an entire lifetime without sharing our faith with people we know need to hear it. We can walk right by open doors that God gives us to share our faith and feel no guilt at all. I am reminded of the lyrics of a solo my mother used to sing written by Gloria Roe.
“Does it make any difference to you? Does it make any difference to you?
If a soul dies in sin, God has told you to win, does it make any difference to you?
Will his blood be required at thy hand? Do you warn the lost as God planned?
Do you make plain the way? Do you work while it’s day?
Does it make any difference to you?”
So, we sin by omission when we don’t LOVE enough….when we don’t SAY enough…
C. But basically we sin by omission when we simply don’t DO enough.
In Mark 8:34 Jesus issued the call to discipleship, saying, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” We are to walk with the Master and serve Him every day. Hearing that challenge though, many of us sit back and do nothing. Jesus called us to set the world on fire…yet many times we settle for simmering. Jesus commanded us to follow Him with everything we have, yet most Christians are satisfied with a halfway, part-time, when-I-feel-like-it commitment, and many are satisfied with no commitment at all.
One employee did so little work that he was fired. A friend came to the boss and said, “I want to apply for the vacancy that Joe left.” The boss replied, “Joe didn’t leave a vacancy.” The truth is many Christians could be removed completely from the scene and they would leave no vacancy in the Lord’s kingdom. Think about it. Would it affect God’s work in any way if you were to die? Would our church’s ministry suffer if you were to suddenly move from this area? Would you be missed? Would you leave a vacancy behind?
I remember a cartoon strip which showed Charlie Brown lying on his back on the ice all wrapped up with fur cap, muff, boots, and mittens. He had fallen on the ice and could not get up. The next frame showed SNOOPY coming along. He looked curiously at Charlie Brown as if to say, “What are you doing down there?” But, Snoopy did not do anything to help. He just laid his head down on Charlie Brown’s stomach, and fell asleep. The last frame showed Charlie Brown with a look of unbelief as he said, “Good grief.”
Well God must feel like that sometimes! People in this world are hurting and need someone to help them…there are new Christians who need to be discipled. There are countless lost people who need to be reached-and in the midst of all this need, millions of Christians are in essence simply laying their heads down and going to sleep. The truth is, our greatest sin as Believers is not the bad that we do but the times we fail to do good. Who was it that said, “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing?”
You know, the word “wicked” is a very strong word in Greek and it is not used very often in the New Testament. One of the few places we find it is in the parable of the talents. Remember that story? The man who had ten talents got busy and multiplied them, as did the man who had five.
But the man who had just one was afraid he would lose it, so he hid it and did nothing with it. Understand-he didn’t squander it. He just did NOTHING with the money and his master rebuked him saying, “Thou WICKED and lazy servant.” (Matthew 25:26) You and I might have called him cautious or disorganized or frightened, but the Bible refers to him as “wicked” because it is sinful to know what God wants us to do and decide not to do it.
That is a principle we need to hear and understand today, for often the greatest sins we commit as Christians are not the HORRIBLE things we DO do…but the good things we FAIL to do. You know, the sad truth is you and I have come to believe that it is not nearly so bad if we DON’T do something as it is if we DO do something-but as James reminds us, both are sins in God’s eyes.
As I told you two weeks ago, I believe God has called us to be on mission for Him here this year in Montgomery County and in Romania and in Mexico and Delaware and New Hampshire and perhaps even in the Philippines. Well the truth is if we fail to follow His will by going to these places we will have sinned. We have adopted a budget in which we have said, “This is how much money we will need to do God’s work in 2003.” If we fail to give to meet that budget, we will have sinned. If God calls you to join our church family and become involved in our ministry and you fail to obey Him-that is a sin-a WICKED sin in God’s eyes. All these different kinds of inaction are wrong because as James says, “anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it sins.”
When I was in college my BSU director asked me to go out to a little church in the country one weekend, Greenhill Baptist Church, to lead their music. I went and then that little church asked me to accept a part time position as their Minister of Music. This was a time in my life that I was struggling with God’s will when it came to my career and even though I knew God wanted me to accept their offer, I initially refused. I didn’t want to go to work in some teeny little church in the hills of Alabama. I was happy attending a big Baptist Church in town. And I didn’t want to be a minister. As a Preacher’s Kid, I knew how hard they worked. But when I said, “NO” to this church, I knew it was the wrong answer. I knew I was rebelling against God’s will for my life and I was miserable until a few days later when, after much prayer, I called them back and accepted. I surrendered to God’s will. It will be the same with you-for no Christian is ever happy and fulfilled in life until they know and DO the will of God.
We come now to our time of invitation-that all important portion of our service in which we give you an opportunity to publicly or privately respond to God. This morning what is He calling you to DO? Is He knocking on your heart’s door-asking to come into your heart and life as Savior and Lord? Is He reminding you of a co-worker or neighbor who needs to hear your witness? Is He convicting you of your need to LOVE someone who is hurting or to repent of your sin of slander? Is God calling you to serve Him as a member of this church? Anything that God calls you to DO-commit to do it right now. Yield to His will by coming forward and sharing your decision with me as we stand and sing.