Do you fear death? Is your day filled with uncertainty, worry, or anxiety? Are you living day to day on a shaky foundation? Can you relate to the many souls on the RMS Titanic. Do you feel like “the ship is sinking” and there are no life boats left? Are you living without hope, does despair fill your whole being, do you feel that you don’t have control of the day? This is what it must have been like for the over 1,500 souls who lost their lives that day on April 15th, 1912. What is tragic about this is that people who live life day to day without hope, fear death, do not need to fear at at all.

Because is Christ all fear is gone, in Christ there is real hope! Jesus is the solid rock which all who obey will stand upon the firm and sure foundation. Living in Christ is the other side of anxiety, of worry and fear for the people of God have hope in the risen Christ and they are washed by His blood, members of His body, the church. These know that this life is just a vapor here today and gone tomorrow. These know that there is an eternal life after this life, and anxiously await it, saying to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21).

It is amazing how powerful the tongue really is. It can change the course of human events for good or for evil. It can make or destroy relationships. The tongue used properly can plant good seed to the saving of a soul, or it can prove out hypocrisy and cause a soul to shun the Lord we profess. 

By it a good man can be ill spoken of and his reputation is destroyed.  So small a member yet so powerful. “Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things” (James 3:5). James describes the “tongue is a fire, a world of [a]iniquity”, and says that “it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of [b]nature; and it is set on fire by [c]hell” (James 3:6). So much power must be kept under control by the Spirit that God gives us so that we use it for the good and the glory of His kingdom.  

Matt. 12:35 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”  The words we speak can have an enormous impact on our family, friends, co-workers and our life. More, than that the words we speak can build up or destroy all the afore mentioned things. Even more important is the fact that our words can have a positive or negative effect on the church, the body of Christ. With just one sentence, one member can destroy the reputation of a local congregation. That’s power! We use our words in many different ways, and we will examine just a few in this lesson, some bad ways, and some good.  We’ll start with people who use words in the irreverent ways…

This is a true as it gets. Ask someone if they have faith and 85-90 percent of the time, you’ll get an affirmative—absolutely, I have faith. Ask the same people if they attend weekly worship services—you’ll get strange looks from most… Some will say—I don’t believe in organized religion others will say you don’t have to “go to church” to worship God. . . you can worship Him anywhere. Then there is the why would I go to worship with a bunch of hypocrites? Finally, the piest de resistance of all – I have faith and my faith and nothing else is all that matters. Another, “true as it gets fact” is that Jesus Himself, as recorded by, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John disagrees with all the afore mentioned man made doctrines and excuses!
Paul and James Both disagree: Paul commands all believers with clear and strong language. . . “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Cor. 13:5). James handles this by offering us two (2) tests showing us how to “examine” or “test” our own selves. . .proving whether or not we are truly walking in faith. Then James offers us (2) two examples to illustrate the value of faith plus works That is to say, walking in “Faith that Works. . . “

Antigen: An antigen is any substance that causes your immune system to produce antibodies against it. This means your immune system does not recognize the substance, and is trying to fight it off. Such as chemicals, bacteria, viruses, or pollen. Antibodies: On the other hand, antibodies bind to foreign substances, such as bacteria and viruses, and cause them to be destroyed. Spiritually, sin in like the Antigen, it attacks the body of Christ, that is the members of the church, and the only weapon we have is the word of God. When we study and learn the word we become Antibodies that destroy sin in every crevice of our life. This lesson and subsequent lesson will help us to understand how to be spiritually well. 

We may not want to admit that we play favorites, but we do. We may not admit that we show respect for the clean, the rich, and the famous, but we do. We likely won’t admit that if the president of the United States were to stop by on Sunday, or maybe some noted movie star, that we would treat them with more attention than the poor smelly person that came the same day, but likely we would. 

James begins this lesson by saying, “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality” (James 2:1).  Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines the word this way. “partiality, the fault of one who when called on to requite or to give judgment has respect to the outward circumstances of men and not to their intrinsic merits, and so prefers, as the more worthy, one who is rich, high-born, or powerful, to another who is destitute of such gifts:” As Christians we need to see this, and eliminate it from our life, and our services. The value of every soul is exactly the same, no matter how the soul is dressed. 

God is no respecter of persons, and neither may we be.

Have you ever wondered how a father, who lived over 3,000 years ago, might have admonished his son? Could that admonition have relevance for us today? How would that compare to how we should admonish ours children, or even one another? Reading from 1 Chronicles 29 we read of David, king of Israel, giving admonition to his son Solomon who will soon take over the leadership of the nation of Israel. What will this ancient father say to his son, and how will you make application of it in your own life? David said Solomon you need to “KNOW GOD”, “SERVE GOD”, and “SEEK THE LORD”. Listen in this message as we seek to learn and apply this good advice from the man after God’s own heart. 

So many today are taught “you don’t have to do anything” when it comes to the salvation of your soul. But the truth is that is not at all so. James for one, said, “22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” (James 1:22-24). I said for one because, and we must understand this, • God Has Always Wanted Doers – (Jer. 11:1-6), • Jesus Has Always Wanted Doers – (Luke 6:46-49), • Paul Has Always Wanted Doers – (Rom. 2:5-13), and James says nothing less: We Must Be Doers of the Word – (James 1:22). The perfect law of liberty that James speaks of, the one thing that we must “look into”, is the only source for us to know if we are doing what God demands of us. That perfect law of liberty is God’s word. Lies reply with, God demands nothing from you accept faith only. If you follow that line of nonsense you are not reading and studying your bible because God’s word is the antithesis of that false teaching. 

Paul writes by inspiration telling us about himself, his calling before and after his conversion. Learning these things will help every believer to walk a more certain path of faith. Knowing Paul’s background and his convictions to the gospel are encouraging and empowering. Learning how he went from a persecutor to a preacher of Christ’s gospel is helpful for us because we all in like manner must travel the road from sinner to saint, from blasphemer to one that praises and glorifies the one and only true God. 

Travel with Paul through this lesson to learn the how and why, that you may make application to your own journey.