In his sermon 'Who Do You Think You Are?', Mike Davenport explores the themes of judgment, humility, and self-reflection through the lens of James 4:11-12. The sermon centers on the relationships Christians have with their brethren, the law, and the lawgiver. Davenport emphasizes that speaking evil of others stems from a heart of pride and that true faith requires humility and self-examination, much like looking into a mirror to see one's true self. He challenges listeners to consider their readiness to accept what they see in the reflection of God's Word, rather than distorting it as one might in a carnival mirror. Davenport warns against usurping authority by judging others, as doing so judges the law and the lawgiver himself. By examining the implications of judgment on personal holiness and community relations, he calls for a Christ-like approach filled with grace and love. The sermon concludes with the call to repentance and reliance on the lawgiver, who alone holds the power to save and destroy.

Good morning all. If you'll turn your Bibles to James 4 verses 11 and 12. Do not speak evil of one 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? Let's pray. Father in heaven, We thank you, Lord, for your Holy Spirit as we come before you. Oh, Lord, we can do nothing without your Spirit to open our ears, clear our minds for the true and pure word that's before you.

Lord, we seek your security. We look forward to your comfort from these words today. And Lord, we do need your peace. Lord, we gather under your high name. We thank you for the Holy Spirit's work to quicken us, Lord, not only in increasing our faith, encouraging our hope, but more so, Lord, to show us how to truly love.

So Lord, we do thank you for the time ahead. We seek to magnify your wonderful name. Lord, I lift up Elder Davenport to you at this time, Lord. Lord, fill him with your spirit, strengthen him, fortify him for the words and the attitude today for us. Lord, let him be enriched and given to the great works you have for us this day.

Jesus' name. Well, if you recall in the first chapter of his epistle, James likened the Word of God to a mirror into which we should gaze to get a true view of ourselves. That means that we may look and see something that we don't really want to see. Now among the New Testament canon, no other book fills that purpose more fully than James. Because of the epistles' lack of, or seeming lack of, doctrinal or didactic teaching, Martin Luther did not think that James belonged among the books that made up the canon of the Scripture, simply for that reason.

It's a very practical book. James doesn't spend a lot of time with didactic doctrinal teaching. But James, you see, is an elder, and his purpose was to minister to the people of God who at one time, though now dispersed, at one time were in the church there in Jerusalem. They were his people, his sheep. His intention was to hold up the mirror of God's Word before this people so that they could see what genuine faith really looks like and to see where they as a people were falling short.

So once again we have James holding up the mirror to us this morning and asking us to take heed to ourselves. But two questions remain. First, will we take the time to gaze at the reflection of our hearts as the Scriptures reveal them to us? Will we take the time to really look intently at what God has to say about our hearts? Secondly, are we willing to admit what we see in that reflection?

Are we willing to admit it? Many times we would rather look into one of those funny mirrors that they used to have at the carnivals that would distort and stretch. And we'd like to think if we're short that we're taller, and that mirror will show us that we're taller. Or if we're larger that it makes us look small it distorts is that what we want or we do we really want to gaze and see and admit What we see in this mirror of God's Word Well, I've entitled the message who do you think you are who do you think you are And I want to walk through this passage under the following three headings. Our relation to our brother, our relation to the law, and then thirdly, our relation to the lawgiver.

So first, our relation to our brother, verse 11, the first part. Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. Now, if you recall back in verses 1 through 5, James began this chapter dealing with real sins that were occurring among his readers. He started first with their sins against their brothers and sisters in Christ. Right there, within the walls of the church, sins against their brothers and sisters in Christ.

He spoke about fighting, about warring, about lusting, murdering, and coveting. Then James turned his focus heavenward, his focus toward God and their sins against God, failure to pray, or praying with self-centered motives. He talked of friendship with the world, which was enmity with God, and he talked about Unfaithfulness to the covenant with Jesus Christ All of these things point to a not so shocking reality church can often be a messy place. That's the reality of it. Church can often be a messy place.

We are a gathering of sinners, many of us redeemed, but still with That warring going on inside as our flesh lusts against the Spirit. We gather as sinners. And all of these sins that James has mentioned in these first five verses, All of these sins have one thing in common. They all come from a heart of pride, from a heart of pride. And so in verse 6, James began dealing with The remedy.

And interestingly, though James began the discussion in verse 1 with their sinfulness, he was addressing their sins against their brethren. When he comes to the remedy, he begins with God. So he starts out talking about their sins with each other, and then their sins toward God, but then he kind of reverses the order. He starts dealing with the remedy before God. And why does he do that?

Well, you see, the entire moral law is summed up in these two commandments. You know those commandments, right? Jesus in answering the question about what was the greatest commandment, what was his answer? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On These two commandments hang all the law and all the prophets. So he deals first with their sin toward God because that's the greatest commandment and that's their greatest sin. And then he turns to their sin toward one another. And then having dealt with our relationship with God in verses 6 through 10, James turns his attention to the second table of the law in the verses before us this morning.

He says, do not speak evil of one another, brethren. That is to say, we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That love for our brother and for our sister must go further than merely not fighting, warring, lusting, or murdering with our words. In fact, it must go further than just speaking evil to them. James says, we must not even speak evil of them.

How quick we are to say something of somebody that we would be very hesitant to actually say directly to them. Being present face to face sometimes keeps us from speaking things that we feel a little more freer to speak when we're not face to face with them. Here are a few commentators and what they say about this speaking evil of one another. Lensky says the following, to talk against each other or about one another is unwarranted derogation. It is our common expression, running each other down, which is still a frequently occurring sin.

When the present imperative here is negative, It often means to stop something that is being done. And then the plural brethren implies that this sin was rife among the readers. Calvin describes the sin here in a twofold fashion, exalting ourselves by slandering others, having all others to live according to our will or fancy, that is, imposing on our brethren our own rule of life. Gordon Keddie describes it this way. It is what the law calls defamation of character and what we call smearing another's good name or character assassination it is every statement that is made with the purpose of belittling someone or be smirching his or her reputation and it encompasses everything from our out-and-out lies to veiled innuendos, and even includes true statements when these are told only to hurt the person about whom they are made.

So do not speak evil of one another, brethren. Now what does this command entail? Well, if we're to correctly answer that question, we must consider the context that is here, I believe, that's continuing from the previous verses. And what is that context? It is a heart of pride that is being addressed in these verses.

The call of James in the previous verses as well as in the verses before us day, his call is to a life of humility. So this speaking evil of one another is tied up, as you could see by these commentators, it's tied up with a heart of pride. And so we should not see these things as James simply revisiting what he has already said about the tongue in James 1 and James 3. The sin here dealt with is the sin of the usurping of authority, an authority that belongs to God alone. In fact, the rest of this chapter is dealing with a heart that is no longer subjecting itself to God.

And rather than being humble, is haughty. And then one of the first manifestations of this pride is, as we see in this text, One of the first manifestations of this pride is how we treat one another. I find it interesting that James here reverts back to addressing them as brethren. If you look up a few verses before, he addressed them as adulterers and adulteresses because he was dealing with their hearts and where they were and the things that they were showing. Here, he's still dealing with them, but he's referring to them as brethren.

Even in the midst of calling them out in their sin, he's calling them brethren. The meaning of the root words behind that word brethren means from the same womb, from the same womb. I submit to you that the mere use of that word here, brethren, as a personal address that in and of itself points out the sinfulness of the behavior. He says you're your brethren, your brethren, your brothers in Christ. Why are you speaking Why are you speaking evil of your brother?

My brother, my sister, do you this morning stand in need of this exhortation from James? Do not. Do not speak evil of one another. Look in the mirror and be honest with yourself. What is the reflection that you see?

But this exhortation from James reveals something deeper, something deeper. You see, not just our relation to our brother, but secondly, our relation to the law. Our relation to the law. Continuing on in verse 11, he says, 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." James reveals to his readers, what's at the heart of speaking evil of someone?

That to speak evil of a brother is actually to judge him. It's to judge him. Having given an exhortation to his readers, James doesn't not move on to another topic until he provides them with reasons why they should not so speak. You see, it's not some random exhortation that he's given them. Don't speak evil of your brother, and then goes on to something else.

And the reasons that he states, the reasons that he states should shed some light on how we as parents here in this room should seek to persuade our children regarding their sin. In fact, parents, we ourselves stand in need of such persuasion in regard to our own sin. What is that persuasion? Well, the reason James gives is not so much about the impact on that person. Will our speaking evil of someone have an impact on that person?

Oh, yes. But James doesn't give that as a reason to not do it. He does not even so much do so about what it reveals about our character. That's not his reason. Listen to Linsky as he reveals the wisdom of James.

We usually, we usually expose this sin by showing that it reveals lack of love or a sinful condition in the heart. James exposes it in a more striking way, namely by placing this sin in relation to law, and thus by way of law, in relation to God." So he's not so much concerned about the impact that it has. He's concerned about what it shows about our relation to the law, and therefore to God. You see, there is more at stake than simply our relation to our brother. That's at stake and he's addressed that But our relation to him reveals that there's something else going on it's our relation to the law Now James uses the word law in a New Testament sense.

We're to understand it in a New Testament sense. It's referring to the entirety of God's revelation to man, not simply to the law given by Moses. And we've seen this same use of the word law in the previous portions of James, chapter 1 verse 25 and chapter 2 verse 8. He's describing the entirety of the law of God in the life of the believer. Why?

Because Scripture itself is sufficient. Scripture itself is complete. The psalmist reminds us in the 19th Psalm that Scripture is perfect, That it is sure, that it is right, that it is true, pure, righteous. It is to be the measure of all things for all Men that you get that the word of God and the word of God Alone is to be the standard by which we measure all things for ourselves as well as for others. To go above or beyond Scripture is to sit in judgment of it.

It is to declare the Word of God as insufficient. It's to remove the law, the Word of God from its place as the true measure of holiness and in its place to raise our own measurement, our own standard of holiness. Isaiah declared in Isaiah 29-13 the verdict of God upon such as bring to bear their own standard of measurement. He says, their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men. In confronting the Pharisees, Christ referred back to this statement of Isaiah.

We read of Christ's interaction with the Pharisees in Matthew 15, 6 through 9. He says, thus you have made the commandment of God to no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men." So, James says that when we speak evil of others in a judgmental spirit, we are guilty of two things. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law." So, it's speaking evil of the law and judging the law.

What is James trying to convey? Well, to speak evil of and to judge is to incriminate or to condemn. It is to subject something or someone to our censure. James is describing a scenario where someone measures his brother by his own standards. In doing so, he incriminates and condemns his brother and by these actions also incriminates and condemns the law.

It is to suggest that the law falls short, that it misses the mark. It is to suggest that our standards of holiness are better than the standards of the law. And note that the guilt of so-speaking evil of the law, it's not based on our intentions. Why, that's not what I meant. It's not based on intentions.

Your intentions have no bearing on your guilt. If you are guilty of speaking evil of your brother, you are guilty speaking evil of the law. If you are guilty of judging your brother, you are guilty of judging the law. But if you judge the law, You are not a doer of the law, but a judge. Dear brothers and sisters, our place before God is to be doers of the law.

We should see ourselves in that light. We would do well to study Psalm 119 and see how the Christian is to interact with the law of God. Interestingly, the last time that James spoke to his readers about being doers, he followed it up with a warning about failing to bridle the tongue. It seems to the tongue. It seems to be a connection.

Our failing to do the law ourselves in our readiness to let loose our tongue regarding someone else's. We should be that man, that woman in chapter one who gazes into the perfect law of liberty, Not just hearing, not hearing and dishing it out on everybody else, but hearing and doing, continuing in that law. That is when we will be blessed in what we do. When we take upon ourselves an authority that is not ours, rather than viewing ourselves as doers of the law, we actually see ourselves as judges. We actually assume superiority to the law, passing judgment on that brother and on the law.

You can't judge a brother or sister in Christ in this way without judging the law. Oh, how ready we are to hear the word and apply it to someone else. How ready we are to sit here and hear these words or to speak these words thinking, I hope that brother is hearing this. I hope they're paying attention. We're so ready to hear and to think about how this applies to someone else and how slow we are to hear the word and to say, oh God, how can I do this?

How can I implement this in my life? Matthew Henry makes the following penetrating assessment. Those who are most ready to set up as judges of the law generally fail most in their obedience to it. Paul Tripp adds his own experience. He says, in my many years of pastoring, counseling, and traveling, I found an all too common and dangerous theme among Christians.

No one lays down the law better than the one who thinks they're keeping it themselves. No one lays down the law better than the ones thinking they're keeping it themselves. But James isn't done with his shepherding of this people whom he loves, and he isn't done with us. Having revealed to us what our relation to our brother has to say about our relation to the law, James thirdly reveals what our relation to the law reveals about our relation to the lawgiver, our relation to the lawgiver. Verse 12, there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy, who are you to judge another?

When now James reaches over to that dial and he turns up the heat a little bit more. Because when we judge the law, we call into question the authority and the wisdom of the lawgiver. And James would have us thinking clearly, there is one and only One lawgiver. And you, my brother, my sister, are not that one. I am not that one.

Jesus gave his people the law of the triune God. Jesus is the law giver. As James just pointed out, we are the recipients of the law. We're the doers. We're the ones to whom the law was given.

We're the recipients of the law. And as recipients, we should just simply be occupied with doing it. We should be occupied with just obeying. But rather than responding as we should as recipients, we take upon ourselves too often the roles of both giver and judge, and we lay down the law and judge all who don't measure up. Linsky makes the following observation.

James looks at the vilifier and the slanderer with a clear eye and sees him as a usurper who is in conflict with the position that is occupied by God alone. We would do well to consider afresh the doctrinal teaching found in Romans 14. A large portion of it was read earlier in our service. Romans 14 applies to our passage today, even though the context there is more narrow. In the beginning of Romans 14, the Apostle Paul is describing a scenario involving a strong brother and a weak brother.

And in the verses that follow, Paul shows how our relation with a brother whom we are ready to judge weak and to harm them in the process, that relation actually reflects upon a failure to see both ourselves and our brother in relation to the lawgiver. Listen to the force of Paul's arguments there in Romans 14. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats For God has received him Who are you to judge another servant to his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.

For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother?

Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we all shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So then, each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore." When James adds the phrase, who is able to save and to destroy, He is agreeing with Paul. God is able to make His servant stand.

My brothers and sisters, As the giver of it, God will use His law to judge His servants. And shall not the judge of the earth do right? He will do right. He doesn't need you to fix it. The judge of the earth shall do right.

And it is He who is able to both save and to destroy. This passage in James and the context in which it is given is so vividly played out in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who went up to the temple to pray. As I read what Jesus said, I want you to listen for three things in the passage you children I want you to listen to three things. I want you to listen to the relationship of these men to each other. I want you to hear about their relation to the law, how they view the law, and I want you to hear at the end the relationship of the lawgiver, the one who will judge what occurred in the temple, okay?

Simple, okay? The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess." And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, " says Christ, I tell you, " says Christ, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Do you see the relation to that brother? What it said about the relation to the law, I tithe, I fast, which Jesus said are not the weightier matters of the law.

That was His relation to the law. He wasn't willing to do the weightier matters. He wanted to do the things that for him came easy. And then we see the relation to the lawgiver. Jesus pronounces that tax collector, He went to his house justified.

God saved him. As for the other man, he was marked for destruction based on what the lawgiver had said. Since there is only one lawgiver and it is clear who that one is, just who do you think you are? You who judge another. By means of application, I have four applications.

Application number One, when we speak evil of one another, we play the part of the devil. When we speak evil of one another, We play the part of the devil. Whoa, you may say, that's pretty strong language, preacher. My friend, do you know what the Greek word for devil is? We had it just a couple of verses above this, resist the devil.

Do you know what the Greek word for that is? Diabolos. Diabolos. And do you know what the root word is? It means accuser or slanderer.

Accuser or slanderer. The name devil that the scriptures have given to Lucifer, that name brands him with the reality of who he really is. The accuser of the Brethren. That's what makes him the devil. He is the accuser of the Brethren.

Thayer's Greek lexicon says that this word is used not only of those who bring a false charge against one, but also of those who disseminate the truth concerning a man, but do so maliciously, insidiously, with hostility. Fix in your mind. You remember we went through quickly Haggai and Zechariah when we were back in Ezra and Nehemiah because those prophets prophesied during those days. Fix in your mind that vision of Zechariah in the third chapter of his prophecy. There stands Joshua, the high priest, and he's standing before Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord, the lawgiver.

And who is at Joshua's right hand? The devil. And he's there to oppose him. To oppose him. Right there before Jesus Christ, the devil is ready to oppose him.

The thing is, is that When we slander and judge our brother, we push the devil out of the way. And we're willing to stand there in front of Jesus Christ and our brother and oppose our brother before Jesus Christ, who gave his life for that brother. The devil just moved out of the way, I'll handle this. And we oppose our brother. Is that a spot that you want to occupy?

Ask yourself, Is that a spot you want to occupy? Secondly, we need the Holy Spirit to give us grace to rightly understand what God expects of us in our relation with others. We need the Holy Spirit to give us grace to rightly understand what God expects of us in our relation to others, because We can run the other direction. This same James closes his epistle with the following words, "'Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins." St. James.

St. James. So what are we to do? I quote from Mr. Keddie again, very wise words.

And you have to listen to them all and apply them all, not just a portion of what he's saying. It's very enlightening. It is not wrong to hold opinions with respect to the spiritual condition of other people, okay? Providing, okay? Okay?

Providing, okay? Providing these opinions are firmly based upon the faithful application of Scripture, in controvertible evidence of practical disobedience to scriptural standards of holiness. And there's more. And all of this assessed in a generous, loving, and compassionate spirit. Do you see all those elements for how we are to form opinions of our brothers?

We must do so according to the faithful application of Scripture, we must do so with such evidence, practical evidence that There's been a transgressing of that faithful application of Scripture. And we don't do it going in with guns blazing. It's only when That assessment is done in a generous, a loving, and a compassionate spirit. There is a place and there is a way to approach a brother or sister in sin. And I might even add there's a time.

A time. A time and a place and a way to approach a brother or sister in sin. And we need grace to be able to navigate those waters both safely and successfully. Number three, consider how you want to be judged on the last day. Consider how you want to be judged on the last day.

Jesus spoke these words that were read in our hearing a little earlier in our service. Matthew 7, 1 to 2, words of warning. Judge not that you be not judged. Does he say don't have those opinions? No, because the context tells us what kind of judging's going on.

He says for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Do you remember the parable of the unforgiving spirit? A man who was forgiven an enormous amount of debt, and yet he went out. And here was the standard applied to him, and he went out and he found that brother. And his measure was this, you owe me a little bit of money, Pay it up now.

Have mercy on me. I will pay it up. I will just give me some time No off you go and Cast him into prison What happened to the man who had been forgiven that death? That same measurement Was brought he was brought back in and that same measurement was applied. You were forgiven this.

You were unwilling to forgive that. This applies to you now. And he was cast into outer darkness. What differences might occur in our relations to one another If this reality was gripping our hearts and our minds that my current standard of measurement and how I am dealing with my brother right now, That measurement will be used against me in the day of judgment. How would that change?

What impact would it have upon our relation with one another? And then fourthly and finally, are you ready to meet the lawgiver? Are you ready to meet this lawgiver? We have all sinned. We have all sinned in regard to speaking evil of others and judging them.

And we have sinned in many other areas as well. We have spoken evil of the law and judged the law. We will all stand guilty before God, the giver of that law. But there is one hope. There is one hope.

James reminds us that this lawgiver has the power to save as well as destroy. He has the power to save as well as destroy. Though we're all guilty, He can save. How? The very first thing you must do, my friend, is to repent.

You must repent. The apostle Paul told those gathered on Mars Hill, truly these times of ignorance in the past God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained and that man is the lawgiver. And because that day is coming when the lawgiver will take his law and judge you by it, maybe with the application also of the standard that you used On top of that, what should you do? Repent. Repent and cast yourself upon this lawgiver because The lawgiver was also the one who obeyed that law.

He came in the place of sinners like you and like me, and he obeyed that law so that he might be the lawgiver who not only has the power to destroy, but has the power to save because of the efficacy of His own shed blood for sinners like us. Cast your soul upon Him, humble yourself in His sight, and He will lift you up to Himself. Let's look to Him in prayer. Gracious God, we thank you for your Word, your law, the entirety of it. And Lord, we ask that you would give us grace to apply it rightly.

Oh Lord, that you would humble us, that you would remove pride from our hearts. Lord, you give more grace and we need it. And Lord, as we've been the recipients of more grace, Lord help us to give more grace in our dealings with our brothers and our sisters. May we be like you. May we be like you, conformed more and more into your image, even this image of one who gives more grace.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.